Miami Beach misses goal of halving long permit reviews; staff say complex projects need up to four rounds

Miami Beach’s building permit process hasn’t met a commissioner’s goal of cutting long, repeated plan reviews in half, and city staff now say that many projects will always need up to four rounds of review, according to a report going to the city’s Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee on Monday, Nov. 9.

Commissioner Alex Fernandez had moved for staff to cut the share of permits needing more than four review cycles by 50% within six months. The report says the share needing four or more cycles has stayed “relatively unchanged” at 16%, and half of those needed exactly four. After seven months of analysis, staff concluded that the complexity of many projects means they will always take up to four cycles.

From October 2025 through September 2026, 68% of permit reviews were finished in one or two cycles, 24% took three or four, and 8% took five or more, according to the report’s exhibit. The report counts the 92% done within four cycles as its main measure.

What has changed

The commission held a special meeting on permitting in February and asked for quarterly progress reports. The latest report lists:

• Mid-review calls. Since March 30, reviewers log their attempts to reach applicants during a review. As of Sept. 30, staff had made 125 of these contacts, with mixed results. The report says a full mid-review process isn’t workable because state law now gives the Building Department five days to turn around a review.
• Text alerts. Inspection text messages started in March; customers get one the morning of an inspection and another when the inspector is two stops away. Fire, Public Works and Planning are to be added before February 2027.
• Same reviewer. 87% of permits are now handled by one reviewer from start to finish.
• Small restaurant repairs that don’t need county environmental approval can go through the walk-through permit process.
• A new reception area for the Building Department and records on City Hall’s first floor, and a planning permit counter, are in the works.

Staff decided against automated email verification for permit contacts, calling it costly and of limited value. Instead of hiring a public relations firm, the Building and Communications departments are handling outreach themselves, starting with new lobby signs.

Fees and an ordinance coming

A new state law, House Bill 803, changed how building departments can charge fees, and the department has finished a fee study; a recommendation is to go to the commission at an upcoming meeting, the report says. A separate ordinance that would let planning staff approve more projects outside historic districts without a board hearing is set for its first reading at the Nov. 18 commission meeting.

The committee meets at 9 a.m. Monday. The agenda is on the city’s meeting portal.