Town of Surfside

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. The Town of Surfside Building Department is the AHJ for residential rooftop PV - it takes the application, collects the fees, issues the permit and performs the inspections, in-house, with a named Building Official/Director (Manuel A. Salazar, CBO, CFM). BUT jurisdiction is genuinely SHARED on plan review, and the Town says so in its own submittal instructions: Step 4 directs the applicant to 'Provide the assigned permit application number when submitting plans to Miami-Dade County (MDC), DERM, and Fire for all applicable reviews', and Step 6 is headed 'Resubmitting MDC Approved Plans'. So the Town's permit number is issued first, the plans then go out to Miami-Dade County (and DERM and Fire where applicable) for review, and the Town issues on the MDC-approved set. Separately, the Town's own permit application states that 'Applications requiring structural review will be forwarded to a Professional Engineer/Miami-Dade Structural Plans Examiner' at $100/hour billed to the applicant. Fire is Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (the Town has no fire department). Zoning/design sits with the Town's Planning Department. 92% · department instruction sheet
• What does this authority permit itself, and what does it delegate? Both, in-house, plus zoning - but plan review is partly outsourced upward. The Town issues building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and roofing permits itself (Code Sec. 14-29(a) levies fees for 'building, plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits' and the fee guide has separate sections for each). Structural review is expressly forwarded out: 'Applications requiring structural review will be forwarded to a Professional Engineer/Miami-Dade Structural Plans Examiner. The engineer fee is $100 per hour and the fee will be due and payable at the time of permit issuance. This is applicable to the structural portion of the review only.' Fire review is Miami-Dade's (fee guide charges fire 'Per Miami-Dade County Fire Prevention Fee Schedule effective October 1, 2023 (Implementing Order No. 04-123)'). DERM (county environmental) reviews commercial/multi-family roofs. A licensed Private Provider may substitute for the Town's plan review AND inspections, but the Town will NOT accept a private provider for plan review only. 90% · permit application - Notice to Permit Applicants
• Is a permit required for a residential rooftop PV system? Yes, always. The Town's permit exemption is Code Sec. 14-28(b) and it is narrow: no permit for general maintenance or repairs not changing occupancy/use/outside appearance and valued under $500, and for roof maintenance under $500 AND under 50 sq ft or 20 linear feet AND pre-authorised by the building official. A PV array is none of those. The zoning code is independently clear: Sec. 90-19.1 'No building shall be erected, constructed, altered, moved, converted, extended or enlarged without the owner or owners first having obtained a building permit', and Sec. 90-50.3 treats a rooftop PV system as permitted accessory EQUIPMENT (permitted, not exempt). A real Surfside permit exists: 2021-001967, type 'Electrical (Commercial) - Solar Panel', 8911 Dickens Ave. 95% · ordinance
• Is there a separate electrical permit, or is it combined? In practice, ONE electrical permit. The only solar job visible in the Town's public portal (2021-001967, 8911 Dickens Ave, applied 31 Mar 2022, issued 7 Jun 2022) was pulled as a single permit of type 'Electrical (Commercial) - Solar Panel' with NO companion building permit: the other two permits ever recorded at that parcel are a 2014 'Legacy - Permit' and a 2023 Right-of-Way permit, so the +/-30-day companion test is 0 of 1. Structurally the fee guide makes this cheap to do either way: the H30A/H30B building-permit table is headed '(Inclusive of Subs)', and where an electrical permit IS a sub-permit to a master building permit and its value was included in the master's construction cost, the sub-permit fee is a flat $100.00. The permit application itself still warns 'a separate permit must be secured for ELECTRICAL, PLUMBING, WELLS, POOLS...'. 80% · live permit record (Tyler EnerGov CSS)
• Is a HOA or architectural approval required first? No HOA gate, and no architectural gate for rooftop PV - and the second half of that is the finding. Surfside DOES run a binding design-review regime: Sec. 90-19.6 'Single-family and two-family development shall be reviewed by the planning and zoning board', which is one of the broadest applicability clauses in this survey. But Sec. 90-19.7 lists what escapes it, and item (8) is 'Rooftop photovoltaic solar systems' - expressly exempt from BOTH planning and zoning board review AND design review. The carve-out is not total: the same sentence says 'however, the design guidelines shall be followed' (the Town of Surfside Design Guidelines 2026, attached to Ordinance 26-1802, adopted 14 April 2026, incorporated by reference at Ch. 90 Exhibit A). On HOAs: 'HOA' and 'homeowners association' each return 0 in the complete codified corpus; there is no HOA-approval precondition on any Town form. 92% · ordinance
• Is there a historic-district review? Yes, at specific addresses, and it is Miami-Dade County's regime, not the Town's. Three limbs, closed separately. (1) JURISDICTION: Surfside has NO municipal historic preservation ordinance - 'certificate of appropriateness' returns 0 in the complete codified corpus, and the Town code instead defers to the county ('properties designated by the county historic preservation board', Sec. 90-41(34); 'a district designated as a historic district per the county', Sec. 90-51(7)). County Code Sec. 16A-3.1(2)(a): 'Municipalities that do not adopt their own municipal historic preservation ordinances shall be governed by this Chapter.' The county's July 2025 Historic Resource Guide names the ten that opted out - Coral Gables, Hialeah, Homestead, Miami, Miami Beach, Miami Shores, Miami Springs, Opa-locka, South Miami, Sunny Isles Beach - and Surfside is not among them; Surfside is listed among the municipalities the County OHP manages. (2) DESIGNATION IS REQUIRED and is NOT voluntary - Sec. 16A-11(1) bites only on property 'designated pursuant to section 16A-10', and Sec. 16A-10 is a Board discretion exercised after a public hearing, not an owner election. (3) THE GATE IS LIVE IN SURFSIDE, unlike most Miami-Dade municipalities: the County has designated the COLLINS AVENUE HISTORIC DISTRICT (Collins & Harding Ave between 90th and 91st St, designated 20 July 2016, 'a collection of Streamline Moderne and Miami Modern (MiMo) buildings') plus four individual sites - The Surf Club, 9011 Collins Ave (19 May 2010); Bougainvillea Apartments, 9340 Collins Ave (18 Dec 2014); Seaway Villas, 9149 Collins Ave (18 Dec 2014); and the FISHER-SAPERO HOUSE, 9200 CARLYLE AVE (30 Sep 2020; National Register 21 Aug 2023), which is a single-family house. ALTERATION IS IN THE TRIGGER LIST AND IS DEFINED: Sec. 16A-11(1) covers anything 'erected, altered, restored, renovated, excavated, moved, or demolished', with architectural features expressly including 'the type, style, and color of roofs, windows, doors, and appurtenances'. No dollar-value ladder exists - the routing is by visibility, not value. 92% · county master list (Historic Resource Guide, 2 Jul 2025)
• Is a wind or windstorm certification required? No separate wind certification instrument, but the HVHZ design obligation is unavoidable and it is NOT stated in mph anywhere in Surfside's own documents. Searched the entire 4.4 MB codified corpus: 'mph' returns 5 hits, none of them a design wind speed; 'HVHZ' returns 0. The wind duty comes in from two directions: Miami-Dade Sec. 8-10(a) requires 'Design pressures for wind' on exterior elevations and sections and 'Pressures for wind design. Loads and load transfer calculations required by the Code' on the framing plan; and the Town's roofing package uses the 'High Velocity Hurricane Zone Florida Uniform Roofing application'. On PRODUCT APPROVAL the rule is a product-class test, not a jurisdiction test: County Code Sec. 8-40 limits the NOA/high-wind approval requirement to envelope products, 'limited to windows, exterior glazing, wall cladding, roofing, exterior doors, skylights, glass block, siding and shutters'. PV modules, racking, inverters and disconnects are NOT in that list, so RACK-MOUNTED PV RUNS ON FLORIDA PRODUCT APPROVAL (FS 553.842); an INTEGRATED PV ROOF is roofing, is inside the list, and does need the envelope approval. The Town's CSS page names both routes in one breath: 'Notice of Approvals (NOAs)/Florida Product Approvals'. 90% · county ordinance
• Is a Specific Use Permit or Council approval ever required? No. Rooftop PV needs no Commission action, no conditional use and no board hearing. It is 'permitted accessory equipment... in all zoning categories' under Sec. 90-50.3(2), and Sec. 90-19.7(8) takes it out of planning-and-zoning-board and design review altogether. The only board that could reach a Surfside PV job is the MIAMI-DADE COUNTY Historic Preservation Board, and only at a designated address: under the county's adopted guidelines, 'exterior mounted technology - solar' on a facade or visible from the right-of-way needs a SPECIAL Certificate of Appropriateness, which is a quasi-judicial public hearing before that Board (60 days to act); on other elevations it is a staff-level REGULAR COA decided within 10 days of a complete application, with a 30-day appeal. 90% · county adopted design guidelines (BCC R-115-22, 1 Feb 2022)
• Is there a system-size cap on residential generation? No kW cap, but there IS a physical cap and it contains a live contradiction that matters on every Surfside single-family roof. Sec. 90-50.3(3): 'The height of rooftop photovoltaic solar systems shall not be greater than five feet above the roof AND SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOWN'S MAXIMUM HEIGHT LIMITATION DESCRIBED IN SECTION 90-44.1.' Sec. 90-44.1 caps rooftop architectural elements in the single-family districts H30A and H30B at 3 FEET maximum height and 1% OF AGGREGATE ROOF AREA. So the PV ordinance grants five feet and then cross-references a table that allows three. The most natural reading is that only the HEIGHT limitation travels (the sentence says 'maximum height limitation'), making the binding figure 3 ft above the roof in H30A/H30B and 5 ft elsewhere - but if the 1% area column were read as travelling too, a 2,500 sq ft roof would be limited to about 25 sq ft of array, roughly one module, which would be a near-prohibition inside an ordinance whose stated intent is 'removing barriers to the installation of alternative energy systems'. FPL imposes the only capacity limit: 'Customer generation is limited to 90 percent of the FPL distribution service rating (Transformer).' 80% · ordinance - internal conflict flagged

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? A Miami-Dade County or State of Florida licensed electrical contractor registered with the Town, or the homeowner as owner-builder under FS 489.103(7). The Town's own about-Building page adds a hard insurance floor specific to this trade: 'For electrical contractors this amount must be at least $500,000 per state requirement. No permit will be issued to electrical contractors whose certificate of insurance shows less than this amount.' 92% · department page
• Must the contractor be registered with this authority before applying? Yes. Annual contractor registration with the Town Building Department, renewed every fiscal year (October-September), submitted to buildingapp@townofsurfsidefl.gov. Miami-Dade contractors must file: Certificate of Competency (front and back), State of Florida Registration if holding a Master licence, liability AND workers' compensation certificates of insurance addressed to the Town of Surfside, a copy of the qualifier's driver's licence, and a Miami-Dade County Local Business Tax Receipt. State contractors: State licence, the same insurance certificates addressed to the Town, qualifier's driver's licence, local business licence. The form is notarised. 'We will no longer accept faxed licenses; originals must be submitted in person or by email.' 95% · department form
• Is a homeowner permitted to self-install and self-permit? Yes, but with two real frictions. The Town publishes an Owner Builder Statement/Affidavit invoking the FS 489.103(7) homeowner exemption, and it states in bold 'OWNERS MUST PERSONALLY APPEAR AT THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT'. The affidavit carries the statutory $75,000 cap, the own-use/occupancy requirement, the no-sale-or-lease-within-1-year rule, and the warning that a violation is a first-degree misdemeanour. So a homeowner can self-permit a PV system under $75,000, but cannot do it entirely by email. 92% · department form

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? For a rooftop PV job the package assembles from four Town instruments, because the Town publishes no PV checklist: (1) the BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATION, notarised by BOTH owner and contractor, stating '2023 FLORIDA BUILDING CODE IN EFFECT', with permit type, job address, folio, value of work (all trades), and describe-work; (2) the CHECKLIST FOR FLOOD DAMAGE CONTROL REVIEW bound into the same application package, which 'must be attached to all Permit Applications for all New Construction and improvements, Renovations, Modifications, Remodels, and/or Additions'; (3) the SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT/DAMAGE WORKSHEET (FEMA 50% RULE), notarised, for single-family; (4) the ELECTRICAL WORKSHEET (2020 NEC edition). Plus: contractor registration on file, a recorded Notice of Commencement (work over $2,500), the up-front processing fee, and a bond (the Building Official's own list of bondable work includes 'Alterations'). Plans are submitted as a separate PDF 'segregated according to discipline'; a final physical copy of drawings is required before issuance. 85% · permit application package
• How many copies, and in what format? Email-only, one PDF for the application and a separate PDF for plans. 'We accept permit applications by email ONLY. We do not accept hard copies.' Application plus up-front fee payment in ONE PDF; 'Submit plans in another PDF file, segregated according to discipline'; email to BUILDINGAPP@townofsurfsidefl.gov; files over 20 MB by Dropbox or OneDrive link. BUT the CSS portal page states 'A final physical copy of drawings is required prior to issuance of permits', so one paper set still has to arrive. Where P&Z design review applies (it does NOT for rooftop PV) the count is two full-size 24x36 sets sealed by a registered architect plus eight 11x17 reductions. 92% · department instruction sheet
• Is a site plan required, and what must it show? Not stated for PV specifically, and there is no Surfside site-plan content list for a permit-level job. The nearest binding content specification is Miami-Dade County Code Sec. 8-10(a), which applies to every permit in the county and requires the site plan to show utilities '(Water Service, meter, sanitary sewer or septic tank, electrical)', setbacks, lowest finished floor elevation and 'Equipment (pool, a/c, and similar)'; the framing plan must show 'roof mounted equipment', 'Pressures for wind design', 'Loads and load transfer calculations required by the Code' and 'Material: Roofing and sheathing material (Including Product Approval Number)'. Two Surfside-specific plan items do attach to a PV job: FPL requires plans to show the dimension between the meter socket and any DER disconnect switch, and the Flood Damage Control Review checklist requires lowest floor, grades, and equipment elevations relative to BFE. 75% · county ordinance
• Is a one-line / three-line diagram required? Yes, by description rather than by name. Miami-Dade County Code Sec. 8-10(a) requires, for every permit, electrical 'Schedules/Riser: Panel size, all circuits with use, load, wire, breaker and conduit size indicated. Diagram with size of service, meter, ground, DISCONNECT SWITCHES, feeders, and panels' - that is a one-line/riser diagram in all but the word. FPL independently requires a single line diagram: 'Meter numbers associated with interconnecting premise must be included in Single Line Diagrams (SLD) and/or plans' and, for a System Impact Study, 'All relaying, protection and metering shall be provided in a one-line diagram. In some case's a three-line diagram may be required.' The Town publishes no diagram requirement of its own. 85% · county ordinance
• Are string and conductor calculations required? Yes for load calculations; not stated for string/conductor sizing as such. Miami-Dade Sec. 8-10(a) requires 'Calculation: Electrical. Load calculation per N.E.C.' on every permit. The Town's own ELECTRICAL WORKSHEET carries a contractor certification in capitals: 'certifies THAT THERE IS ADEQUATE MAIN SERVICE CAPACITY TO HANDLE ANY ADDITIONAL LOAD UNDER THIS APPLICATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE ELECTRICAL CODES' - so the calculation is attested on the Town's form even though the arithmetic is not submitted on it. 85% · department form
• Is a structural PE stamp required, and at what threshold? There is NO local dollar-value seal threshold in Surfside - and that is the finding. The phrase does not exist in the Town code (searched the full 4.4 MB codified corpus). Instead Surfside uses a WORK-TYPE trigger with an open-ended hourly charge: the permit application's Notice to Permit Applicants states 'Applications requiring structural review will be forwarded to a Professional Engineer/Miami-Dade Structural Plans Examiner. The engineer fee is $100 per hour and the fee will be due and payable at the time of permit issuance.' A rooftop array in the HVHZ carrying wind uplift into an existing roof structure is structural review on its face, so expect the outside PE review and expect to pay for it by the hour at issuance. The county's own plan-content rule reinforces it: Sec. 8-10(a) requires the framing plan to carry 'roof mounted equipment', 'Pressures for wind design' and 'Loads and load transfer calculations required by the Code'. 80% · permit application - Notice to Permit Applicants
• Is an electrical PE stamp required, and at what threshold? Not published, and no threshold exists in the Town code. No Surfside instrument requires an electrical PE seal at any value. The Town's electrical route is the ELECTRICAL WORKSHEET signed by the licensed contractor, not a sealed electrical drawing. Where plans are required at all, FBC Ch. 1 and FS 471/481 supply the default. 60% · codified code - controlled absence

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? Tyler EnerGov 'Customer Self Service' (CSS) at surfsidefl-energovpub.tylerhost.net/apps/selfservice, with Tyler Portico identity sign-in. The Town also links it from /css-portal. Public record search (permits, plans, inspections, code cases, requests, projects) works without a login. 95% · department page + portal
• Can the whole application be completed online? No - for a solar job, not even partly. The Town publishes the exhaustive list of permit types it accepts online and SOLAR IS NOT ON IT. The list is: Commercial/Multi Family Flooring and Soundproofing; Residential Garage Door Changeout; Driveways; Fences; HVAC Air Conditioning straight change outs; Electrical (Residential) Alteration; Electrical (Residential) Repair; Right of Way (Residential); Mechanical (Residential) HVAC System New; Mechanical (Residential) Ductwork New or Replacement; Plumbing (Residential) Potable Water System; Plumbing (Residential) Sanitary Drainage System; Commercial Remodel; Commercial Addition; New Commercial Building; Commercial Roof/Re-Roof; Commercial Structural Repair; Residential Addition; Residential Doors; Residential Windows; New Single Family Residential; Residential Structural Repair; Residential Remodel; Full Demolition; Partial Demolition; Electrical Residential (New); Commercial Fire Sprinkler System; Commercial Mechanical Cooling Tower; Commercial Mechanical Refrigerator/Freezer; Commercial Mechanical Ventilation System. A PV job therefore goes by the email route to BUILDINGAPP@townofsurfsidefl.gov. And even for the listed types the answer is No: 'A final physical copy of drawings is required prior to issuance of permits', and the permit application must be notarised by both owner and contractor (electronic notarisation is accepted). 92% · department page
• What does a residential solar permit cost? No solar line item exists; a PV job is priced as a residential ALTERATION. Operative schedule is the Building Department Fee Guide effective 10 March 2026, Resolution 2026-3494. In the single-family districts H30A/H30B the table is headed 'Permit Fees for Building Permits - Zoning Districts (H30A/H30B) (Inclusive of Subs)': Alteration Permit Fee base $150.00, plus 1.5% of the cost of construction for residential. A standalone Electrical permit in H30A/H30B is also base $150.00 + 1.5%; as a sub-permit to a master permit with the value already in the master, it is a flat $100.00. Add-ons that all attach: 6% employee-training surcharge on each building permit fee; 1.0% DBPR (FS 553.721, min $2); 1.5% BCAIB (FS 468.631, min $2); Miami-Dade code-compliance surcharge $0.60 per $1,000 of valuation; sanitation surcharge 0.30% of job value (min $15); Planning 'Development Approval Compliance (at Permitting)' 0.75% of construction costs (min $75) plus a $250 Zoning Review application fee and a $500 cost-recovery ESCROW deposit under Code Sec. 90-12 (refundable against actual professional-review charges); a Fire fee per the Miami-Dade Fire Prevention Fee Schedule (IO 04-123), minimum $75, and solar is NOT on the fire-fee exclusion list. WORKED EXAMPLE, $25,000 system in H30A/H30B: building $150 + $375 = $525; training 6% ~ $32; DBPR + BCAIB ~ $13; county code compliance $15; sanitation $75; Fire $75 min; Planning zoning review $250 + 0.75% $187.50. Subtotal about $1,170. Add a separate electrical permit at $525 (or $100 as a sub-permit) and the range is roughly $1,170-$1,700 in non-refundable fees, PLUS a $500 refundable escrow deposit, PLUS the $100/hour outside structural PE review, PLUS a bond the Building Official may require (up to 5% of construction cost; up to $500 on work under $10,000). 85% · adopted fee schedule (Res. 2026-3494, eff. 10 Mar 2026)
• How is the fee calculated? Valuation, with a base fee. Base fee plus 1.5% of the cost of construction for residential (2% commercial). The minimum-valuation floors in the same paragraph ($400/sq ft generally, $250/sq ft detached single family) are written for new construction; an alteration is priced on actual cost, subject to the Town's audit right in Sec. 14-29(a): the Town 'reserves the right to conduct an audit of the construction costs... based on a determination by the building official that the valuation is underestimated on the application', and the difference is payable before the certificate issues. 90% · adopted fee schedule
• Is there a separate plan-check fee? Not as a separate line at application - the plan review is inside the permit fee, and the first and second plan RE-reviews are free. Fee guide: 'Plans Re-review fee: First and second re-review $0.00'. A third and subsequent re-review for the same uncorrected code rejection attracts a fee under FS 553.80(2)(b). There ARE separate REVIEW fees from other departments on the same permit: Planning $250 Zoning Review + 0.75% of construction cost, and Fire at the county schedule, minimum $75. And the outside structural review is billed at $100/hour, payable at issuance. 80% · adopted 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.

• What is the stated plan-review turnaround? Not published as a number, and the Town publishes no review-timeline commitment at all. What IS available is one real apply-to-issue interval from the Town's own portal: permit 2021-001967 (Electrical (Commercial) - Solar Panel, 8911 Dickens Ave) applied 31 March 2022 and issued 7 June 2022 - 68 calendar days. Code Sec. 14-29(p) promises priority rather than a clock: 'Photovoltaic permits. All photovoltaic related building permit applications shall be expedited to promote the use of photovoltaic energy.' A paid overtime expedite is separately available at $405 per review or inspection requested under Sec. 14-29(i). The statutory FS 553.792 clock applies by default; the Town's application does NOT contain a waiver of it (searched the whole application package: 'waive' 0, '553.792' 0). 75% · live permit record + ordinance
• How long is an issued permit valid before it expires? 180 days from issuance, with one discretionary extension. Zoning Sec. 90-19.1: 'When issued, such permit shall be valid for a period of 180 days. However, the town manager or designee may grant an extension to the permit due to an uncontrollable act of nature of up to 180 days.' The real permit record agrees: 2021-001967 issued 7 Jun 2022, expiration 6 Dec 2022 - 182 days. A one-time written extension costs $124.00; further extensions cost 50% of the building permit fee line. The fee guide adds an important operational rule: 'Issued permits with no activity for 180 days, will be assessed the same fees listed in this section' - i.e. inactivity, not just elapsed time, kills a permit. 95% · ordinance + live permit record
• Which utility handles interconnection here? Florida Power & Light (FPL). Six instruments, all one way, no second retail electric provider anywhere. (1) The Town's own hurricane page: 'Report Power Outage - The Town of Surfside is a customer just like you. Report power outages directly to FPL', linking fpl.com. (2) The Town's 'Report Residential Streetlight Outage' page redirects straight into fpl.com. (3) FY2026 budget narrative, p.35: 'Surfside operates its own utilities functions. Surfside provides: Stormwater Maintenance, Solid Waste and Recycling Collection, and Water and Sewer Services. Neither electric nor natural gas services are provided directly by the Town.' and 'Electric: Florida Power and Light (FPL) is the primary supplier of electric power to the Town of Surfside.' (4) The budget's General Fund revenue detail carries exactly ONE electric franchise account (511-323-1000 Electric Franchise $628,736) and exactly ONE electric utility-tax account (511-314-1000 Electric Utility $850,000) - I read the line-item appendix specifically to test for a second provider and there is none. (5) The negative index: 'The Town has franchise agreements for electricity and propane' - what is franchised is what the Town does not own; water, sewer and stormwater are the Town's own and are the only commodities with deposits and rates on the Town's Utility Rates page. (6) Code Sec. 70-132 levies a 10% public service tax 'on each and every sale within the town of electricity... to be collected by every seller' and remitted to the Town - you do not collect a utility tax from yourself. 95% · adopted budget + department pages
• Where does the utility sit in the sequence? Parallel, and the utility is not a gate on the Town's permit. FPL's interconnection application runs alongside the Town permit; the Town's permit documents never mention FPL or interconnection. FPL is the gate on ENERGISING: 'All net metering systems require written approval and agreement from FPL.' For a residential system at or under 10 kW AC this is Tier 1: no application fee, and a UL 1741-listed inverter-based Tier 1 system needs no customer-installed manual disconnect. 90% · utility tariff

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), as adopted through the Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023). The Town's own current ELECTRICAL WORKSHEET says so on its face: the applicant 'agrees to make such installation in accordance with the requirements of the Town of Surfside, Florida, the 2020 NEC'. The Town also still publishes a superseded 'ELECTRICAL WORKSHEET FORM NEC-2017' alongside it, so check which form you are handed. No NEC edition is cited anywhere in the Town code (anchored '\bNEC\b' = 0 across the full corpus; a naive substring search returns 418 false positives from words like 'connect' and 'necessary'). 90% · department form
• Which building code edition is in force? Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023). The Town's building permit application prints '2023 FLORIDA BUILDING CODE IN EFFECT' across its head. Code Sec. 14-27 is a floating adoption: 'The Florida Building Code, together with all rules adopted thereunder, as same may be amended from time to time, is adopted as the minimum building code for the town.' Local amendments come in from Miami-Dade County Code Ch. 8 (Art. III Sec. 8-31 technical, Sec. 8-32 administrative), which Surfside is subject to as an HVHZ municipality, plus Surfside's own Sec. 14-3 adopting county Sec. 8-11 (Existing Buildings) with Town modifications. 95% · permit application + ordinance
• Which fire code edition is in force? In force: the Florida Fire Prevention Code, enforced by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue - but Surfside's own fire chapter is a fossil and should not be relied on. Code Sec. 38-1 still adopts 'Chapter 14 of the Dade County Fire Prevention and Safety Code' and Sec. 38-2 still adopts 'The Fire Prevention Code, 1992 edition, as published by the National Fire Protection Association'. Both were preempted long ago by FS 633.202, which makes the current Florida Fire Prevention Code the statewide minimum. The live instrument is the fee guide, which charges fire review 'Per Miami-Dade County Fire Prevention Fee Schedule effective October 1, 2023 (Implementing Order No. 04-123), as amended', minimum $75. The FY2026 budget confirms the authority: 'Fire & Rescue Services are provided in the Town of Surfside by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. The closest stations are in Bay Harbor Islands and at Haulover Park.' 75% · ordinance - fossil flagged
• Are there local amendments to any of the above? Yes - and the ones that matter for PV are local and specific. TOWN: Sec. 14-3 adopts Miami-Dade Sec. 8-11 (Existing Buildings/recertification) with Town add-ons; Sec. 14-28(b) sets a $500 permit-exemption floor; Sec. 14-29(p) makes photovoltaic permits expedited; Sec. 14-31 restricts roof materials; Sec. 90-50.3 is a dedicated rooftop-PV ordinance (Ord. 1623, 8 Jul 2014); Sec. 42-11(c)(1) requires single-family structures in the SFHA to be built to BFE PLUS TWO FEET. COUNTY: Ch. 8 Art. III local technical and administrative amendments and Sec. 8-40 product approval. CRITICALLY, there is NO local ELECTRICAL amendment on either side - and no PV plan-review list or PV inspection sequence in Miami-Dade's codified FBC Ch. 1 amendments either. I swept the entire county Chapter 8: 'solar' 0, 'photovoltaic' 0, against passing controls (electrical 89, HVHZ 40, 'product approval' 8) and fabricated control 'zzqqxvv' 0. Broward County's codified PV plan-review lists and PV inspection sequence do NOT travel to Miami-Dade. 92% · county + town ordinances, controlled sweep
• What is the installation judged against? The 2020 NEC as adopted by FBC 8th Edition (2023), with no local electrical amendment of any kind, plus the contractor's own attestation of adequate main service capacity on the Town's electrical worksheet. Neither the Town code nor Miami-Dade Chapter 8 contains an electrical amendment touching PV. 85% · department form + controlled sweep

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.

• What ridge setback and access pathways are required? Not published by the Town. No ridge setback, access pathway or roof-access provision exists in the Surfside code (searched the full corpus) and Miami-Dade Chapter 8 has no PV fire provisions (solar 0 / photovoltaic 0 with passing controls). The applicable rules are the Florida Fire Prevention Code as enforced by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and FBC/NFPA 1 pathway requirements; the Town's own fire chapter still points at a 1992 NFPA edition and a repealed county chapter, so it supplies nothing usable. One practical note: the fee guide's fire-fee exclusion list (Flooring, Demolition, Fence, Driveway/Approach, Deck/Pavers) does NOT include solar, so a fire fee of at least $75 attaches to a PV permit - which suggests a fire review actually happens, notwithstanding the general county exemption of one- and two-family dwellings from Chief Fire Official plan review. 55% · controlled absence + fee schedule inference

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? Required by the 2020 NEC (Art. 690.12), not by anything local. 'Rapid shutdown' returns 0 in the complete Surfside codified corpus and 0 in Miami-Dade Chapter 8. Unlike Broward County, Miami-Dade has adopted no PV-specific electrical amendment, so the NEC edition in force is the whole answer. 85% · department form + controlled sweep

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? The AHJ specifies none; FPL specifies two, and they are the governing requirement on a Surfside job. FPL Electric Service Standards Section XIII (Distributed Generation), revision 10-30-25, item 6: 'All labels must be permanent and weatherproof/UV resistant placard with ENGRAVED LETTERS. The customer is responsible for all labeling requirements. The following labels must be installed at the interconnecting meter can and the DER disconnect switch.' INTERCONNECTING METER CAN: 'WARNING / MULTI POWER SOURCES / [ENTER SOURCES HERE] / RATED AC OUTPUT CURRENT ** AMPS / NOMINAL OPERATING VOLTAGE ** VOLTS'. DER DISCONNECT SWITCH: 'GENERATION SYSTEM AC DISCONNECT / RATED AC OUTPUT CURRENT ** AMPS / NOMINAL OPERATING VOLTAGE ** VOLTS'. On top of those, the NEC 2020 Art. 690/705 placard set applies as code. The Town publishes no placard specification of its own - searched the full codified corpus and all 57 building-department PDFs. 90% · utility engineering standard (ESS Section XIII, rev. 10-30-25)
• Does the authority specify placard wording of its own? No - the Town specifies no placard wording of its own. Proved against the complete codified corpus (4.4 MB, 1,101 of 1,102 TOC nodes, zero empty non-Reserved documents) and against every published building-department PDF. The wording that binds comes from FPL Section XIII and from the NEC. 90% · controlled absence
• Does it specify letter height, colour or material? No - no letter height, no colour, no material dimension from the Town. FPL specifies MATERIAL and METHOD but not size or colour: 'permanent and weatherproof/UV resistant placard with engraved letters'. That is the whole of the specification on a Surfside job. 88% · utility engineering standard
• Is a site plan / facility map placard required, and what must it show? No AHJ requirement for a facility-map placard. FPL requires a plan-level equivalent rather than a placard: 'Meter numbers associated with interconnecting premise must be included in Single Line Diagrams (SLD) and/or plans', and where a DER disconnect switch is required, 'Plans must show dimensions between the location of the meter socket and the DER disconnect switch.' Where a required disconnect cannot sit adjacent to the meter, the tariff does require a locating placard: Sheet 9.051 Sec. 5.3 calls for 'a permanent weather-proof plaque adjacent to FPL's meter socket indicating the location of the manual disconnect switch'. NEC 2020 Art. 705.10 applies as code. 85% · utility tariff + engineering standard
• Does the UTILITY specify placards beyond the AHJ's? Yes, and they are the only placards any Surfside instrument actually specifies - see Q38. Two engraved placards, one at the interconnecting meter can and one at the DER disconnect switch. PLUS, for any job with storage, a third: 'A placard must be permanently affixed to the meter enclosure stating "Battery storage utilized in this facility."' That battery placard lives in ESS Section XIII C.1 and is NOT in FPL's filed tariff - I searched all of tariff Section 9 and the only tariff placard is the Sheet 9.051 Sec. 5.3 remote-disconnect plaque. Cite the engineering standard, never a tariff sheet, for the battery placard: it is a different legal weight. 92% · utility engineering standard (ESS XIII C.1)
• Where must the labels be placed? At the interconnecting meter can and at the DER disconnect switch (FPL Section XIII item 6). The battery placard goes on the meter enclosure. Where a required manual disconnect is not adjacent to the meter, the locating plaque goes adjacent to FPL's meter socket. The DER disconnect switch itself, where required, must be 'mounted separate from but adjacent to the FPL meter socket within 10 feet and must always remain accessible to FPL', with 'no locked gates, doors or fences between the meter socket and the DER disconnect switch'. No Town placement rule exists. 90% · utility engineering standard

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.

• Where must the AC disconnect be, relative to the meter? The TAP POINT governs, not the tier - in FPL's own words. Tier 1 (10 kW or less) is exempt from the DER disconnect switch: 'All tier 2 and tier 3 systems require an FPL approved visually open Distributed Energy Resource (DER) disconnect switch', and the tariff confirms 'U.L.1741 Listed, inverter-based Tier 1 customer-owned renewable generation systems do not require a customer-installed manual disconnect switch.' BUT: 'FPL recommends that all interconnections will be performed on the load side of the customer's main electrical panel. If the interconnection is performed on the LINE SIDE of the customers main electrical panel (per NEC) a manual AC disconnect IS required between AC generation output and the point of interconnection to FPL facilities. The manual disconnect switch must be mounted separate from but adjacent to the FPL meter socket WITHIN 10 FEET and must always remain accessible to FPL.' Where a switch is required: visibly open, lockable, must take a 3/8-inch FPL padlock shank on the cover hasp, must not be modified to accept an FPL lock, enclosure grounded, blades de-energised when open per NEC 404.6(C), no locked gates/doors/fences in between, and plans must show the dimension. Absolute prohibition either way: 'Under no circumstance will the customer make interconnections in any FPL equipment including metering enclosures, transformers, switching cabinets, vaults.' CARRY THIS CONTRADICTION: the tariff exempts Tier 1 at 'less than or equal to 10 kW' while FPL's standalone requirements describe the switch as required 'for all DER installations ranging from 10kW to 2MW' - a 10.0 kW system is arguable both ways. Confirm at exactly 10 kW; do not assume. 92% · utility engineering standard + tariff
• Must equipment be on a specific approved list? Yes, but the list depends on the product class, not on the jurisdiction. Rack-mounted PV modules, racking, inverters and disconnects are NOT envelope products under County Code Sec. 8-40 (whose list is 'limited to windows, exterior glazing, wall cladding, roofing, exterior doors, skylights, glass block, siding and shutters'), so they run on FLORIDA PRODUCT APPROVAL under FS 553.842/553.8425. An INTEGRATED PV ROOF is roofing, is inside the Sec. 8-40 list, and needs a Miami-Dade NOA or Florida Building Commission high-wind approval. A Miami-Dade product approval 'shall be valid countywide'. The Town's CSS page names both routes together: 'equipment rating sheets and Notice of Approvals (NOAs)/Florida Product Approvals'. Separately, FPL requires battery storage to be NRTL-certified to the current UL 1741, and requires the inverter to be IEEE 1547 approved. 92% · county ordinance
• Are batteries permitted, and under what conditions? Permitted, with nothing local and a real FPL constraint. The Town code contains NO battery or energy-storage provision at all: 'energy storage' 0, anchored '\bESS\b' 0, and all 11 'battery' hits are smoke detectors, leaf blowers and micromobility devices. Miami-Dade Chapter 8 likewise has nothing. The governing text is FPL ESS Section XIII C: storage behind the meter 'must have a certification conducted by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) to the current UL 1741 standard for safety'; non-UL 1741 storage 'must be DC coupled behind a UL 1741 listed device'; a placard must be permanently affixed to the meter enclosure stating 'Battery storage utilized in this facility.'; and - important commercially - 'Energy stored by the battery is only for the customer's use... at this time the customer may not export power from the battery to the grid.' A backup-only battery with no renewable generation needs NO interconnection agreement, but the customer is responsible for preventing back-feed. If an ESS is ground-mounted, Sec. 90-47.3 catches it in H30A/H30B: at-grade equipment must not be in any setback, must not be visible from any street or waterway, must be screened, and is acoustically limited. 88% · utility engineering standard + controlled absence
• Is there a separate ESS permit or inspection? No separate ESS permit type exists. The Town's CSS portal permit-type list contains no battery, ESS or energy-storage type, and the code creates none. An ESS would be permitted as electrical (and mechanical, if applicable) work on the normal residential-alteration route. The nearest named analogue in the code is Sec. 90-67, 'Emergency power generators', which does require its own building permit and a review 'to ensure such installations minimize the visual and acoustic impact on adjacent properties'. 70% · department page + controlled absence
• Is a ground mount treated as a structure? Not addressed - and for practical purposes a ground mount is not contemplated in Surfside. 'Ground mount' and 'ground-mounted' return 0 across the complete codified corpus. Sec. 90-50.3 is titled and drafted for ROOFTOP systems only ('Rooftop photovoltaic solar system: A system which uses one or more photovoltaic panels installed on the surface of a roof, parallel to a sloped roof or surface- or rack-mounted on a flat roof'). A ground array would fall to the general at-grade equipment rule, Sec. 90-47.3: in H30A/H30B, equipment at grade 'may be located at grade, provided such equipment is not in any setback, and is not visible from any street or waterway', fully screened by an enclosure matching its surroundings and acoustically limited. On a 0.5-square-mile barrier island of small lots that is close to prohibitive. 70% · ordinance - controlled absence
• Is there a local rule on service upgrades or busbar sizing? Not published. No busbar, service-upgrade or 120%-rule provision exists in the Town code or in Miami-Dade Chapter 8. The only Surfside instrument touching service capacity is the ELECTRICAL WORKSHEET's capitalised certification that there is 'ADEQUATE MAIN SERVICE CAPACITY TO HANDLE ANY ADDITIONAL LOAD UNDER THIS APPLICATION'. FPL adds one rule that functions like a service limit: 'Customer generation is limited to 90 percent of the FPL distribution service rating (Transformer).' 70% · department form - controlled absence on local rule
• Is a specific mounting system or attachment spacing required? No Surfside mounting or attachment-spacing standard exists. Sec. 90-50.3 regulates only height, tree removal and maintenance - it says nothing about attachment. The binding content requirement is Miami-Dade Sec. 8-10(a): the framing plan must show 'roof mounted equipment', 'Pressures for wind design' and 'Loads and load transfer calculations required by the Code', and 'Material: Roofing and sheathing material (Including Product Approval Number)'. The practical gate is the structural review routed to an outside PE / Miami-Dade Structural Plans Examiner at $100/hour. Note one clean carve-out worth having: Sec. 90-50(6) routes rooftop photovoltaics to Sec. 90-50.3, while Sec. 90-50(4) routes air conditioning and mechanical equipment to Sec. 90-67.3 - so PV ESCAPES the H30A/H30B rooftop-mechanical regime entirely (75-foot line-of-sight screening, full visual enclosure, 55 dBA acoustic limit, 7.5% roof-footprint cap, 6-foot height cap). A PV array is not screened in Surfside. 85% · ordinance

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? Email, on the Town's own INSPECTION REQUEST form, to buildingapp@townofsurfsidefl.gov, or by phone on (305) 861-4863 opt. 2. The form requires: email address (marked Required), date, trade (Building / Roofing / Electrical / Plumbing-Gas / Mechanical), inspection type and category, requester name, property address with ZIP, MASTER permit number AND subsidiary permit number, a contact name and phone, and a signature. There is no self-service inspection scheduling for a solar job, because solar is not one of the permit types the CSS portal accepts. 92% · department form
• How much notice is required? Not published as a rule, but the Town's own records show what happens in practice on a solar job. On permit 2021-001967: the ROUGH inspection was requested 8 June 2022 and scheduled for 9 June 2022 - next day; the ELECTRICAL FINAL was requested 9 June 2022 and scheduled for 14 June 2022 - five calendar days. Both passed. The department publishes no notice requirement and no cut-off time anywhere. 65% · live inspection records
• Are same-day or AM/PM windows offered? Not published, and there is a staffing caveat the Town states itself: 'Inspectors work for the Town on a part-time basis and are generally available for inspection appointments.' No AM/PM window, no same-day service and no arrival-window policy is published. A paid expedited inspection is available on request at $405 per inspection requested, scheduled 'on an overtime basis by town staff' under Sec. 14-29(i). 70% · department page + fee schedule

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 - the Town performs its own inspections, with its own inspectors, and the portal record proves it on a real solar job. The Town also permits a licensed PRIVATE PROVIDER to perform the inspections instead, at a discount on the permit fee; notably the Town will NOT accept a private provider for plan review only. 92% · live inspection records
• If delegated, to whom? Not delegated for the Town's own inspections. What IS routed outside the Town is PLAN review, not inspection: structural review goes to 'a Professional Engineer/Miami-Dade Structural Plans Examiner' at $100/hour, fire to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, environmental to DERM (commercial/multi-family), and the submittal instructions send plans to Miami-Dade County for review before the Town issues. An owner or contractor may also elect a private provider under FS 553.791. 85% · department instruction sheet + application

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? No published sequence - but the Town's own records show the real one on a solar job, and it is two inspections. Permit 2021-001967 (Electrical - Solar Panel, 8911 Dickens Ave), permit issued 7 June 2022: (1) 'Rough', INSP-003469-2022, requested 8 June, scheduled 9 June, PASSED; (2) 'Electrical Final', IELE-003481-2022, requested 9 June, scheduled 14 June, PASSED. The Town's inspection request form's trade list (Building / Roofing / Electrical / Plumbing-Gas / Mechanical) is consistent with a PV job running on the Electrical trade alone. Miami-Dade County, in its OWN jurisdiction, runs a named 'Rough and Final Inspections for Solar Photovoltaic (Electrical 34)' type - useful as a regional prior, but it is county practice and is expressly NOT Surfside's published rule. 75% · live inspection records
• Is a rough-in or mid-roof inspection required? Yes, in practice. The one Surfside solar job in the portal has a 'Rough' inspection passed on 9 June 2022, between issuance (7 June) and the Electrical Final (14 June). No published rule requires it. 75% · live inspection record

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. The Town publishes 57 building-department documents and not one of them is an inspection checklist. The published checklists are all SUBMITTAL checklists (roofing/re-roofing, awning and canopy, demolition, TCO/CO, pool construction, flood damage control review). Checked both pages of the Documents and Forms library. 85% · department page - controlled absence
• What must be on site at inspection? Three things, and two of them stop the inspection dead if missing. (1) A certified copy of the RECORDED NOTICE OF COMMENCEMENT, required where work exceeds $2,500 - every PV job: 'Receipt of the notice will not affect the issuance of the permit but INSPECTIONS MAY NOT BE PERFORMED until and unless a certified copy of the recorded notice has been provided.' (2) The PERMIT CARD, posted conspicuously - Sec. 90-19.3 requires it 'maintained in a conspicuous place on the premises... and available on demand for examination'; Miami-Dade Sec. 8-10(c) requires a weatherproof card at the front of the premises for the duration of the work. (3) The approved plan set marked 'REVIEWED FOR CODE COMPLIANCE' (Miami-Dade Sec. 8-10(b)) - the Town separately requires a final physical copy of drawings before issuance. Replacing a lost permit card costs $100 per required signature. 88% · permit application + ordinances

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? A Certificate of Completion for a permit with no occupancy change, which a rooftop PV job is. Code Sec. 14-29(x) covers 'temporary, or final occupancy or completion' together, and the Town publishes an 'APPLICATION FOR TCO, CO AND CC FORM' and a 'TCO AND CO CHECKLIST'. The real record is consistent: permit 2021-001967 shows Status 'Complete' with a Finalized Date of 22 May 2025 - nearly three years after the final inspection passed on 14 June 2022, which is worth knowing as a housekeeping lag rather than a technical one. The fee guide's certificate pricing is written for occupancy ('Residential Units H30A and H30B, per Unit $400.00') and does not have a line for a Certificate of Completion on an alteration. 60% · live permit record + department forms
• Who notifies the utility for PTO? The installer/customer, to FPL - not the AHJ. Nothing in any Surfside document mentions the utility, interconnection or permission to operate; the Town's role ends at the final inspection and the certificate. FPL's requirement is on the customer: 'All net metering systems require written approval and agreement from FPL', and 'The customer is responsible for all labeling requirements.' For a Tier 1 residential system there is no FPL application fee. 85% · utility engineering standard + controlled absence
• Is there a re-inspection fee? $104.00 per re-inspection, after the initial inspection and one free re-inspection. Fee guide: 'Initial Inspection $0.00'; 'Re-inspection Fee: In compliance with F.S. 553.80(2)(c), any inspection after initial inspection, shall be charged a fee of four times the amount of the fee imposed for the initial inspection or first reinspection, whichever is greater, for each such subsequent inspection - $104.00.' Code Sec. 14-29(c)(2) adds the real teeth: 'Payment of the reinspection fee shall be required before any subsequent permits are issued to the person or entity owing same. Further inspections shall be withheld until payment of reinspection fees has been made.' 90% · adopted fee schedule
• How are corrections issued and cleared? By email from a clerk, and the process is documented only in the submittal instructions: 'After all applicable trades have reviewed the permit plans, a clerk will email you with the outcome.' Resubmission is by email to the same address, plans segregated by discipline. The escalation is priced rather than described: the first and second plan re-reviews are free; from the third re-review of the same uncorrected code rejection a fee attaches per discipline under FS 553.80(2)(b). On the inspection side, corrections are cleared by requesting a re-inspection on the Town's Inspection Request form, and an unpaid re-inspection fee blocks both further inspections and any new permits. 70% · department instruction sheet + fee schedule