Waiting on a permit in St. Pete? Here's what you need to know

Permitting after doubles hurricanes

FOX 13's Evyn Moon reports on the Tampa Bay area's recovery efforts after back-to-back hurricanes caused major home and land damage. Permitting in many areas, including St. Petersburg, is proving to be a painful part of the process for everyone—from residents desperately waiting to move back into their homes to city officials bogged down with thousands of forms.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - As the Tampa Bay area rebuilds, permitting can be a painful part of the process for everyone – from residents desperately waiting to move back into their homes and city officials bogged down with thousands of forms.

But in the city of St. Petersburg, some residents said they’ve waited weeks for approval.

"[Residents are] frustrated with the time it takes, to fill out the application, go in, go through everything they need to go through, and sometimes they’re getting denied or sent back. It's taking a day, three days, or a month. It just doesn’t make sense," said Kevin Batdorf, the Shore Acres Civic Association president. "The permitting process in St. Pete should work. It's designed to work properly, but I think they’re just under-staffed for the sheer volume of a storm like this."

Despite these stories of long wait times, FOX 13 spoke with a department head for the City of St. Pete for an update on permits. They said 90% of permits submitted so far have been returned within one week.

"As of this week, we have issued almost 3,000 permits. We have another almost 1,000 in process," said Elizabeth Abernathy, the St. Pete planning and development director. "The majority of the permits are issued same day or within five days. What we have in our reporting system is that about 5% of the permits are taking longer than that initial week."

The biggest delay is often missing information – which can include descriptions, photos, floor plans or detailed cost breakdowns.

Abernethy stressed that her staff is working overtime.

READ: Hurricane recovery, resiliency part of 2025 legislative priorities for St. Pete

"We're anticipating about 12,000 permits that are going to be needed because of the extent of damage that we did have in our city, so that is basically doubling the volume," she said. "Staff is working overtime, Saturdays, trying to get through and help people be able to rebuild their home."

And she reminds folks: There’s a reason the city can’t just waive permits.

"Our participation in the national flood insurance program and the community rating system that gets us flood discounts is contingent on us making sure we adhere to these procedures and the permitting," said Abernethy.

After permits, residents also have to schedule an inspection. The city said they are doing about 700 inspections every day.

You can check the status of your permit online at stpete.org/rule49 or stpete.org/permitting.

MORE: Realtor urges buyers to do ‘due diligence’ buying hurricane-damaged homes

The City of St. Pete also shared some additional information about the permitting and inspections process, including ways to help expedite the permitting process:

Make sure you provide a complete permit application with detailed description of work for each trade
Note the flood depth of water within your home
Provide any photos you have to help document the level and proposed scope of work
Provide a floor plan with the areas of work identified
Provide a detailed cost break down for all of the work proposed – a copy of the insurance adjusters estimate or contractors bid for the needed repairs if available.
If the damage to your property exceeds 25% of the tax value of the structure, a detailed cost estimate and completed substantial improvement /damage review package will be required
The more detailed information that can be provided at the permit submittal will decrease the review time and increase the possibility for permit approval at the first review.

Inspections: Typical work load is approximately 500 inspections each day, workload has increased to 700 inspections a day after the recent storm events. Inspection and plan review staff are working overtime to keep up with the current work load. We are reschedule final roof inspections for overtime on Saturdays to allow more PDEP inspections to be completed during the week.

Plan Review: Staff is working overtime and Saturdays to try and keep up with the work load on PDEP permits and the other new home and commercial permit applications that are currently in process. We are giving PDEP flood damage permits priority in the review process.

Additional staffing: We requested mutual aid from the state FDEM for additional inspection and plan review staff, we have also reached out to Private Provide companies that have licensed inspectors and plan review staff, but availability of licensed staff is limited. A number of jurisdictions that suffered storm damage are making similar requests and finding additional licensed staff to aid in recover has been challenging.

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