Town of Medley

A city address is usually permitted by the city, not the county — but not always, and some authorities keep building and hand electrical to someone else. Getting this wrong costs the whole submittal, because every requirement below belongs to whoever actually holds jurisdiction. Check the overlays in the same pass: an HOA, a historic district, a windstorm certification or a system-size cap can reshape the design, and all of them are cheaper to find now than after the array is laid out.

• Is this authority the AHJ for residential solar at this address? Yes 96% · statewide keyless register + authority's own 5-year FS 553.80(7) reports
• What does this authority permit itself, and what does it delegate? Both 95% · authority's own fee schedule + permit application
• Is a permit required for a residential rooftop PV system? Yes 80% · authority's own permit application + fee schedule (absence of a PV exemption)
• Is there a separate electrical permit, or is it combined? Separate 90% · authority's own permit application + Electrical 30-Day Temporary Service affidavit
• Is a wind or windstorm certification required? Yes 75% · authority's own HVHZ roofing form + inherited Miami-Dade County Code Sec. 8-40 finding

Several authorities require the electrical permit to be pulled by a licensed electrician, or require the contractor to be registered with them BEFORE applying. Registration is not same-day. This is second on the list rather than fourth because it is the step most likely to stop the job before the drawings matter.

• Who is allowed to pull the electrical permit? Licensed/registered electrical contractor (or the owner, as owner-builder) 72% · authority's own Contractor Registration form
• Must the contractor be registered with this authority before applying? Yes 85% · authority's own Contractor Registration form
• Is a homeowner permitted to self-install and self-permit? Yes 85% · authority's own published form (title only; instructions PDF not separately opened this run)

Almost everywhere wants a site plan, a one-line or three-line electrical diagram, equipment cut sheets with listings, and a structural attachment detail. Build it against the published checklist rather than the last jurisdiction you worked in — the checklist is what the reviewer marks against.

• What documents make up a complete submittal? A completed Permit Application (Master/Sub-Permit, with Owner/Contractor/Architect-Engineer/Contact sections, permit-type checkboxes, legal description/folio number, and work value); the Contractor Registration package if the contractor is not already on file (insurance certificates naming the Town, LBTR copy, state or Miami-Dade CTQB license, photo ID); presumed construction drawings/plans (implied by the Building Official's plan-review role and the fee schedule's per-trade plan-review references, though no itemized drawing checklist is published for solar specifically). No PV-specific submittal checklist (of the kind other Miami-Dade authorities like El Portal publish) exists on the Town's site. 62% · authority's own permit application + contractor registration form (no dedicated PV checklist exists)

Most authorities now take the whole application through a portal, and several states cap or constrain what a residential solar permit may cost. Check whether plan check is billed separately before you quote the job.

• Which permit portal does this authority use? BS&A Online (bsaonline.com, uid=2537) — used for scheduling inspections, Building Department record search, and paying Building Department fees online. The Town's Permit Application itself remains a fillable PDF (PermitApplication.pdf) rather than a fully digital form. 88% · authority's own live permit/inspection portal (BS&A Online)
• Can the whole application be completed online? No — not currently for new applications 85% · authority's own live portal, tested directly
• What does a residential solar permit cost? No single published flat number for residential PV; fee is computed from job value. Worked example for a $30,000 residential rooftop PV job processed as an Electrical Alteration (Residential): base Electrical fee 3% of job value = $900 (Sec. E.3, minimum $175); State surcharges FS 553.721 (1.0%) + FS 468.631 (1.5%) = 2.5% of the permit fee = $22.50; Miami-Dade County Code Compliance surcharge 5% of permit fees collected = $45.00; Up-Front Processing Fee 20% of the permit fee ($180, credited against the total, non-refundable if the permit is not issued). Subtotal before any City Surcharge or Zoning review ≈ $967.50-$1,102.50, plus a possible $75 Residential Zoning Plan Review fee (Sec. C.18) if Planning applies its review to the installation, and the Town's own 15% 'City Surcharge' technology fee (Sec. B.6) which is worded as applying 'to the total Building Permit fee' — it is not clear from the schedule's own text whether an Electrical-only sub-permit (with no separate Building sub-permit pulled) is also assessed this 15% line. 55% · authority's own fee schedule, worked arithmetically
• How is the fee calculated? Tiered/valuation-based 90% · authority's own fee schedule
• Is there a separate plan-check fee? Partially — a Zoning plan-review fee exists (Residential $75 / Commercial $125, fee schedule Sec. C.18) but no separate Building/Electrical/Mechanical/Plumbing plan-review line distinct from the base permit fee itself was found (unlike some Miami-Dade neighbors, e.g. El Portal's $85/trade plan-review line). Sec. G 'Engineering' plan-review fees apply to Public Works items (traffic signals, paving, drainage) rather than to building-trade plan review. 65% · authority's own fee schedule

Interconnection is a separate process from the permit and usually the longer pole. Where the utility does not depend on the permit being issued, running both at once is the single biggest saving available on a residential job.

• How long is an issued permit valid before it expires? A permit does not have a single flat expiration date stated, but the fee schedule's Renewals table sets the practical validity ladder: renewal within 6 months of issuance costs 50% of the original permit fee; renewal after 6 months (but presumably before 12) costs 100% of the original fee; after 12 months the applicant must apply for an entirely new permit. 82% · authority's own fee schedule
• Which utility handles interconnection here? Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) — sole electric seller 90% · authority's own FY2025-26 adopted budget (franchise fee and utility tax narrative + 12-year table)
• Where does the utility sit in the sequence? Parallel, with a hard sequencing rule at energization: the AHJ's own inspection/approval must occur before the system may operate in parallel with FPL's grid; FPL's own physical interconnection inspection can run concurrently, within 30 calendar days of the customer executing the Standard Interconnection Agreement. 85% · Florida Administrative Code, verbatim rule text, fetched and read first-hand this run

The NEC edition a jurisdiction enforces is often a cycle behind the newest one published, and local amendments sit on top of it. Rapid shutdown, conductor sizing and labelling all change between editions, so the edition in force is the first thing to establish, not the last.

• Which NEC edition is in force? 2020 NEC (NFPA 70-2020), incorporated by reference via the Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023). 65% · authority's own fee schedule (internally dated reference) + statewide code-cycle inference
• Which building code edition is in force? Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023), effective 31 December 2023. 92% · authority's own department page
• Are there local amendments to any of the above? Ambiguous within the Town's own documents. 55% · authority's own fee schedule (internal inconsistency) + inherited Miami-Dade County Code Ch. 8 finding
• What is the installation judged against? Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023), the 2020 NEC as its referenced electrical code, and Miami-Dade County's countywide High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (Chapter 16 FBC) wind/product-approval regime (County Code Sec. 8-40) for any roof-envelope-attached equipment. 72% · authority's own documents + statewide/countywide code framework

Ridge setbacks and roof access pathways are fire-service requirements and they constrain the array layout. They are the most common cause of a redesign after the fire department comments on a plan set.

Nothing recorded for Town of Medley on this step yet — 1 question checked and found unpublished. The guidance above is general.

Which rapid-shutdown rule applies follows directly from the NEC edition in force, and the initiation device has to be at a location the fire service can reach and identify. This is inspected, and it is labelled.

• Is rapid shutdown required, and to which NEC edition? Rapid shutdown is required, per NEC 690.12 as incorporated by the 2020 NEC referenced in the FBC 8th Edition (2023) (see q29). 55% · inference from adopted NEC edition (paywalled primary text not reached)

The NEC sets a baseline for permanent markings at the service equipment and the disconnecting means. On top of that, an authority may specify its own wording, and the utility may specify more again. Where any of them writes its own text, a generic off-the-shelf label set will not pass — this is the detail most often fixed on a return visit.

• Which placards does this authority require at the service equipment? Not separately published by the Town; the applicable placard regime is set by the interconnecting utility, FPL. 50% · authority's own department page (silent) + prior-verified utility tariff finding, not re-confirmed this run
• Does the authority specify placard wording of its own? No 55% · authority's own fee schedule and forms list (silent)
• Does the UTILITY specify placards beyond the AHJ's? Yes, per prior first-hand-verified findings in this survey for FPL (not independently re-confirmed this run): an engraved meter-can placard under FPL's DG tariff Sec. XIII.A.6 applies regardless of Tier, and Sec. A.5 imposes an additional requirement whenever the interconnection uses a line-side tap, regardless of tier. 50% · prior-verified utility tariff finding (not re-fetched for Medley this run)

Where the AC disconnect must sit relative to the meter is usually the utility's rule, not the building department's. Battery storage frequently carries its own permit, its own inspection and its own fire conditions.

• Must equipment be on a specific approved list? Yes — via Miami-Dade County's Notice of Acceptance (NOA)/Product Approval system for roof-envelope products (racking integrated into the roofing envelope), and/or the statewide Florida Product Approval system (FS 553.842/553.8425) for rack-mounted PV added to an existing roof. 68% · authority's own HVHZ form + inherited Miami-Dade County Code Sec. 8-40 finding

Booking is a portal, a phone call or an email depending on the authority, and the notice required is rarely zero. Book before the work is finished rather than after — the lead time, not the work, is usually what sets the date.

• How is an inspection booked? Phone or the BS&A Online portal 85% · authority's own department page
• How much notice is required? At least 24 hours 85% · authority's own department page
• Are same-day or AM/PM windows offered? No AM/PM sub-windows are published; instead each trade has fixed inspection days: Building Tuesday-Thursday; Roofing Tuesday & Thursday; Electrical Tuesday & Wednesday; Plumbing Tuesday-Thursday; Mechanical Tuesday-Thursday; Zoning finals by email request. 85% · authority's own department page

Some authorities inspect their own solar work; some delegate it, and a few do not inspect the PV equipment itself at all. Who is coming determines what they will look at.

• Does this AHJ perform its own final solar inspection? Yes 92% · authority's own FS 553.80(7) Building Permit & Inspection Utilization Report, FY2023-24
• If delegated, to whom? N/A — not delegated 90% · authority's own FS 553.80(7) reports (three fiscal years)

A rough-in or mid-roof inspection, where one is required, has to happen before the work it covers is closed up. Missing a stage means opening something back up, and it is the most expensive kind of correction.

• Which inspections are required, and in what order? Trade approval blocks on the Permit Application list Zoning, Structural, Building, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Roofing and Flood as the possible inspection/approval lines for a permit; the fee schedule's Schedule-of-Inspections list (q51) shows Building, Roofing, Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical each inspected on fixed days. No PV-specific inspection sequence (e.g. Electrical rough then final) is separately published. 60% · authority's own permit application + department page (no PV-specific sequence published)

The approved plan set, the permit, and the equipment listings should be on site and reachable. Inspectors routinely verify that installed equipment matches what was approved, and that the labels are the ones the plan set promised.

• Is there a published inspection checklist? No 75% · complete enumeration of authority's own published forms list + fee schedule + portal menu
• What must be on site at inspection? No PV-specific on-site document requirement is published by the Town. Miami-Dade County Code Sec. 8-10(c) requires a weatherproof permit card to be posted conspicuously at the front of the premises for the duration of the work — a countywide requirement (per this survey's West Miami finding) that would apply to any Medley job, though not independently re-verified against a Medley-specific document this run. 50% · inherited Miami-Dade County Code finding, not independently re-verified this run

Passing gives you a final or an equivalent sign-off. That is not the same as permission to operate: PTO comes from the utility, and who tells the utility the inspection passed varies. A system left switched off for weeks is usually waiting on this handover.

• What is issued on pass? Certificate of Completion (alteration to an existing structure — the typical case for a residential PV retrofit) or Certificate of Occupancy (new construction); a Temporary CC/CO (TCC/TCO) is also available at the same fee. 80% · authority's own fee schedule
• Who notifies the utility for PTO? Installer/customer notifies FPL and executes FPL's Standard Interconnection Agreement, using the Town's final inspection/CO-CC as the trigger that allows parallel operation to begin. 55% · Florida Administrative Code (state rule, read first-hand this run); FPL's own process page not fetched this run
• Is there a re-inspection fee? $125.00 per additional inspection beyond the initial and one follow-up inspection (Sec. 13.a 'Additional Inspection Fee'), rising to 4x the fee for a documented repeat code violation under the FS 553.80 enforcement provision quoted in the schedule itself (Sec. 13.c.2). 90% · authority's own fee schedule
• How are corrections issued and cleared? Corrections are cleared by requesting and paying for the applicable re-inspection; the base permit fee entitles the holder to only an initial and one follow-up inspection per mandatory inspection type, and each further inspection required to establish compliance costs $125.00. Where the same code violation is documented on three or more consecutive rejections, the Town's own quoted FS 553.80(2)(c)/(b) enforcement language authorizes a fee of 4x the proportional plans-review or re-inspection fee for each further review/inspection of that same violation. 80% · authority's own fee schedule