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In Biscayne Park
the colour of your house
is a permit question.

The Village asks for three colour swatches before you repaint the outside of your own home, and keeps a pre-approved list at Village Hall. That one rule tells you how everything else here works: appearance and construction are reviewed separately, and the second one is not the one people forget. We build to both, as a licensed general contractor working across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

Plan My Biscayne Park Project Walk the Six Stages
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Miami-Dade · Broward & Palm Beach Counties

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Start here

Start with the address

Almost everything on this page turns on where the property actually is and what the street can see of it. Tell us the address and what you are hoping to do, and the first conversation is a useful one.

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We use your details only to respond to this enquiry. No lists, no resale.

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Your details are with the Elbaz Construction team and we will come back to you, usually the same or next working day. If it is urgent, call (754) 236-0675.

Recent projects

Recent Elbaz Construction work

Eight frames of completed work across South Florida — bathrooms, kitchens, flooring and two accessory dwelling units. Tap any image to see it larger.

01

A completed bathroom with a hammered vessel basin and a glazed walk-in shower.

02

A completed open-plan kitchen looking through to the living space.

03

The open living area of a completed accessory dwelling unit.

04

A wet-room bathroom with a freestanding tub and an open walk-in shower on one floor.

05

A compact kitchen island with seating for two.

06

A recessed shower niche backed in scallop marble mosaic with a metal trim edge.

07

The kitchen of a two-level accessory dwelling unit in oak-fronted cabinetry.

08

A corner shower bench in large-format tile above a hexagon mosaic floor.

All photographs are of real completed Elbaz Construction work. They come from several separate properties across South Florida and are shown as recent work. None of them was taken in Biscayne Park, and none is captioned as though it were.

01 / 12

The journey

Six stages, from your address to a closed permit.

Biscayne Park is small enough that its rules are published on a single page, and specific enough that the single page contains a rule about paint. What follows is the order those rules actually apply in: what the Village knows about your lot, what your scope triggers, how the application is filed, what happens on site, the decisions that are genuinely yours, and how a permit is closed rather than left open.

Use the stage markers to jump to the part you are stuck on. Nothing here is a promise about your address — the Building Permit Coordinator and the Village decide that — and nothing here is a timeline we invented. Where the Village publishes a rule, it is quoted. Where it does not, this page says so instead of guessing.

Stage 01 · Lot

A small village asks a large question first: does it fit?

Four things about a Biscayne Park address change what your project has to answer for. Work out which apply before anything is drawn, because two of them are decided by people who never look at the structural drawings.

How it will look from the street

The Village states plainly that exterior painting requires zoning approval, and that you submit three colour swatches with the application. It also states that certain pre-approved colours held at Village Hall do not require that approval. So there are two routes to a repainted house here: pick from a list the Village has already agreed, or make a case with three samples. Neither route is the building permit — this is a zoning question, answered by a different part of the same small office.

  • Exterior painting requires zoning approval, in the Village's own words
  • Three colour swatches are submitted with the application
  • Certain pre-approved colours at Village Hall need no zoning approval
  • The pre-approved list is held at Village Hall; confirm it before you buy paint
Illustration of a row of six muted heritage paint colour swatches (illustration)

Illustration, not a photograph: a row of muted heritage colour swatches, drawn to show what a swatch submission looks like. It is not the Village of Biscayne Park palette, which is held at Village Hall and was not published in a readable form.

A Planning and Design Review Board

Among the Village's standing boards is a Planning and Design Review Board — a body whose name says what it is for. A municipality that maintains a permanent design review board, and that writes paint colour into its permit page, has decided as a matter of policy that appearance is a public question rather than a private one. What that means practically is that the design conversation should happen early, not after drawings are finished. We do not publish this Board's meeting schedule or its submission deadlines, because the Village does not publish them in a form we could read — confirm them before you plan a calendar around them.

  • The Village lists a Planning and Design Review Board among its standing boards
  • Design questions are best settled before drawings are finished, not after
  • We publish no meeting cadence or deadline for it — the Village publishes none
  • Ask the Building Permit Coordinator whether your scope reaches the Board
Open-plan kitchen looking through to the living space beyond

A completed Elbaz Construction kitchen looking through to the living space beyond. A South Florida project; not photographed in Biscayne Park.

Miami-Dade, and the HVHZ

Biscayne Park sits in Miami-Dade County, which is inside the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone — a designation covering Miami-Dade and Broward and nowhere else in the state. In practice the HVHZ governs the outside of the building: roofing, windows, doors, shutters and, above all, how they are attached. It is also why product approval documentation is part of a submission here rather than something produced later when an inspector asks for it. On a village lot that intersects the colour rule in a way worth planning for: replacing windows is an envelope job, a permit job and, if it changes what the street sees, a design question at the same time.

  • The HVHZ covers Miami-Dade and Broward counties only
  • It bites hardest on roof, glazing, openings and their fixings
  • Product approval paperwork belongs in the submission, not in the inspection
  • An envelope change can be a building question and an appearance question at once
Fluted oak vanity with an integrated basin, black tap and a backlit mirror cabinet beside a window

A completed Elbaz Construction bathroom: a fluted oak vanity with an integrated basin and a backlit mirror cabinet beside a window. Not a Biscayne Park property.

A part-time counter

The Village publishes its own hours, and they are the hours of a small municipality: Monday to Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and again from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to noon, closed on holidays. There is one Building Permit Coordinator and one telephone number. That is not a complaint — a small office is often faster than a large one, because you reach the person who decides. But it does mean a question asked at 1:30 on a Thursday is a question asked on Friday morning, and it means the answer to "can we just call and check?" is yes, within a window.

  • Village Hall: Monday–Thursday 9–1 and 2–5, Fridays 9–noon, closed holidays
  • One Building Permit Coordinator, reachable on 305-899-8000
  • The Village invites you to consult before starting: "Exceptions may apply"
  • 600 NE 114 Street is the address the Village publishes
Dark wide-plank flooring in an open interior with material sample boards on display stands

Dark wide-plank flooring in a completed Elbaz Construction interior with material sample boards on display stands. Not a Biscayne Park project.

Stage 02 · Scope

What needs a permit here, and what needs two approvals

The Village's list of permitted work is broad and it is written broadly on purpose. The interesting part is not the list — it is the sentence after it, and the separate rule about paint.

The list, and it is wide

The Village names electrical, plumbing, mechanical, roofing, pools, fencing and "both interior and exterior construction or repairs" as work needing a permit. Read that last clause carefully: it does not distinguish between building something new and repairing something old, and it does not carve out interior work. A kitchen or bathroom remodel is inside every one of those categories at once, which is why the honest answer to "does my remodel need a permit in Biscayne Park?" is yes, before anyone has seen the drawings.

  • Electrical, plumbing, mechanical, roofing, pools and fencing are all named
  • "Both interior and exterior construction or repairs" is the Village's phrase
  • Repairs are not treated as a lesser category than new work
  • A remodel touches several of these at once, so it is permitted work
Completed bathroom with a hammered vessel basin, backlit mirror and a glazed walk-in shower

A completed Elbaz Construction bathroom with a hammered vessel basin, backlit mirror and a glazed walk-in shower. A South Florida project, not a Biscayne Park one.

And then: "Exceptions may apply"

The Village follows its list with a sentence most municipalities leave out: "Exceptions may apply, so consult with the Building Permit Coordinator before initiating any work." That is unusual and it is useful. Larger cities publish an exemption list and expect you to interpret it; Biscayne Park publishes a person. The practical reading is that the Village would rather answer a question than open a case, and that a five-minute call before work starts is a documented part of the process here rather than a favour.

  • "Exceptions may apply" is published, not implied
  • The Village names the Building Permit Coordinator as the person to ask
  • The consultation is expected BEFORE initiating any work
  • Asking is cheaper than a stop-work case on a village-sized lot
Two stainless grab bars fitted either side of a walk-in shower with a handheld shower on a slide bar

Two stainless grab bars fitted either side of a completed Elbaz Construction walk-in shower, with a handheld shower on a slide bar. Not photographed in Biscayne Park.

Paint: a zoning approval

This is the rule that distinguishes the Village. Exterior painting requires zoning approval; you submit three colour swatches with the application; and certain pre-approved colours held at Village Hall do not require the approval at all. Notice which way round it runs. In many South Florida municipalities repainting a single-family house is the one exterior job that needs nothing. Here it is the job that needs a different department. If you are already opening a permit for other work, settle the colour in the same conversation rather than discovering it at the end.

  • Exterior painting requires zoning approval in Biscayne Park
  • Three colour swatches accompany the application
  • Pre-approved colours held at Village Hall skip the approval
  • It is a zoning question, so it is not answered by the building reviewer
Emerald green tiled shower with a white hexagon mosaic bench and a recessed niche

An emerald green tiled shower with a white hexagon mosaic bench and a recessed niche, from a completed Elbaz Construction project in South Florida. Not a Biscayne Park property.

Even a garage sale

The Village's permit page also states that garage sales require a permit and that the number of sales per year is limited. It sits on the same page as the electrical and roofing rules, which is the clearest possible signal about how this Village thinks: the permit is the Village's way of knowing what is happening on its streets, not merely a safety instrument. Carry that assumption into a renovation and very little about the process will surprise you. We do not publish the annual cap, because the Village states that one exists without stating the number.

  • Garage sales require a permit here
  • The number of sales per year is limited; the Village does not publish the cap
  • It shares a page with the construction rules, deliberately
  • The permit is an information instrument as much as a safety one
Plain poured concrete driveway with a broom finish and cut control joints

A plain poured concrete driveway with a broom finish and cut control joints, from completed Elbaz Construction work in South Florida. Not a Biscayne Park driveway.

Every photograph in this section is real Elbaz Construction project photography from completed South Florida work. None of it was taken in Biscayne Park and none of it is captioned as though it were. The one drawn image is labelled as an illustration.

Stage 03 · File

Filing it: full plans, online, approved before anything starts

The Village publishes three requirements about filing and they are unusually blunt: full plans, online submission, and approval before work commences. Each one closes a door that owners commonly try.

Not a sketch, and not in stages

The Village states that submission of full plans is required for review and approval before the issuance of a building permit. "Full" is doing real work in that sentence: it rules out filing a partial scope to start early and adding the rest later, which is the single most common reason a small job turns into three review cycles.

The Village's permitting portal

Biscayne Park uses OpenGov for permitting, and the Village's own guidance is to search by the type of work — type "electrical" for an electrical permit, and so on. Everything is uploaded against the application there rather than handed across a counter.

Licensed and insured, checked first

The Village asks owners directly to "ensure that your contractor is licensed and insured". That is addressed to you, not to us, and it is worth taking literally: it is a check you can make yourself before signing anything, with anybody.

Only if the outside changes

If the scope changes what the street sees — paint above all, but also anything that alters the elevation — zoning approval enters alongside the building permit. Paint carries its own rule: three colour swatches with the application, unless the colour is already on the Village's pre-approved list.

The rule with no soft edge

The Village states that permit applications "must be approved prior to commencing any work". There is no phased reading of that sentence and no interpretation under which demolition counts as preparation. On a lot this size, work that starts early is visible from the street on the first day.

A small office, reviewing in order

The application is reviewed and comments come back against the submission. In a village this size the reviewer is reachable, which materially shortens a comment cycle — most cycles are lengthened by waiting on a decision, not by the reviewer.

Against the Village's own schedule

The Village adopted an Amended Master Building Fee Schedule on 7 February 2023 and publishes it. We do not reprint figures here, because the Village's own schedule is a better answer than anything we could print, and it appears itemised on your proposal.

Then the notice of commencement

Once the permit issues the job can start. On work above the statutory threshold a notice of commencement is recorded before the first inspection — ordinary Florida practice rather than anything peculiar to Biscayne Park, but it is the step most often forgotten by owners running their own project.

This is the published sequence, not a promise about your project. What any specific address requires, whether zoning approval applies and whether the Planning and Design Review Board becomes involved are decided by the Village of Biscayne Park — not by a contractor. We confirm what your address actually requires before anything is filed.

Stage 04 · Site

A job on a village lot, where the street is close

Biscayne Park is a grid of small lots with short frontages, and a Village office that answers its own telephone. Both change how a build actually runs here: access is tight enough to belong in the programme rather than in the apologies, and a question can be settled in a morning instead of a fortnight. These are the phases in the order they arrive, and what each one turns on in this Village.

The frontage

Agreed before the first van

Lots here are narrow and the houses sit close to the street, so where the skip stands, where materials are unloaded and where trades leave vehicles are decided in advance instead of improvised. In Biscayne Park all three are visible to every neighbour from day one, and getting them wrong is the quickest way to turn an ordinary job into something the Village hears about before we do.

Quality check · Access, unloading and skip position settled before anything is delivered

Light wide-plank flooring running uninterrupted across a large open room

The call the Village invites

Inside its published hours

The Village asks to be consulted before work begins, and its office runs Monday to Thursday with a closed hour in the middle of each day and a half day on Friday. We make that call with the scope already written down, because what the Building Permit Coordinator says about your address governs — not our reading of a web page.

Quality check · Scope confirmed with the Village before anything is opened up

Two stainless grab bars fitted either side of a walk-in shower with a handheld shower on a slide bar

Opening up

What the house has been through

With the scope removed, the fabric is visible for the first time. Older South Florida housing stock often carries alterations nobody filed, and in a municipality whose permit record is short enough to read end to end, an undocumented change is easier to find later rather than harder. Anything uncovered is recorded and put to you before it goes back behind a wall.

Quality check · Everything uncovered is photographed and raised before it is concealed

Shower walls part-tiled in vertical stacked plank tile with layout marks still visible on the floor

Load paths

Built to the plans that were approved

Anything carrying load is executed to the drawings the Village reviewed — the full plans it required before issuing the permit, not a version agreed on site afterwards. Where conditions genuinely differ from the drawing, that is a conversation with the Village rather than a decision for a carpenter.

Quality check · Nothing structural is concealed before it has been inspected

Compact kitchen island with seating for two in a smaller kitchen footprint

The outside skin

Two questions, two desks

This is where Biscayne Park differs most from its neighbours. Windows, doors, roofing and their fixings have to satisfy the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, which is a building question answered with product approval paperwork. Anything the street can see is also an appearance question, answered on the zoning side. Both must be settled before the elevation is finished, and the same person does not settle them.

Quality check · Installed products matched to their approvals, and the elevation agreed

Fluted oak vanity with an integrated basin, black tap and a backlit mirror cabinet beside a window

The trades the Village names

Electrical, plumbing, mechanical

The Village lists electrical, plumbing, mechanical, roofing, pools and fencing by name as work needing a permit. On a remodel at least two are live at this point, each inspected separately against the same permit, and each one a booking rather than an assumption.

Quality check · Every named discipline inspected on its own before anything closes

Recessed shower niche backed in hexagon mosaic within large-format wall tile

Waterproofing

The layer that decides the next decade

Tanking, backer board and falls go in beneath the tile. None of it is ever seen again and none of it is optional: it is the part of a South Florida bathroom that either lasts or quietly does not, and photographs of it are worth more in five years than any assurance given now.

Quality check · Falls and waterproofing recorded photographically before tiling

Shower walls part-tiled in vertical stacked plank tile with layout marks still visible on the floor

Setting out

Confirmed with you, on the floor

Tile, stone and cabinetry are set out and walked with you before the field is committed. This is the last phase in which a change is inexpensive, and the one owners most often assume somebody already decided on their behalf.

Quality check · Setting out walked with you before the first full course

Wet-room bathroom with a freestanding tub and an open walk-in shower sharing one tiled floor

The colour

Against the swatch that was approved

If the elevation is being repainted, the finish is checked against the colour the Village actually approved — the swatch that went in with the application, or a colour taken from the pre-approved list at Village Hall. Approving one colour and applying another costs nothing to avoid and a great deal to resolve.

Quality check · Finished elevation checked against the approved swatch

Illustration of a row of six muted heritage paint colour swatches (illustration)

Closing it with the Village

So nothing follows the house

Final inspections are booked, the outstanding items are agreed in writing, and the permit is closed rather than left sitting. In a municipality this small the permit record is a short document, and a future buyer will read all of it.

Quality check · Permit closed out and the record left clean

Completed bathroom with a hammered vessel basin, backlit mirror and a glazed walk-in shower

Stage 05 · Choose

The three decisions Biscayne Park owners find hardest

Argued both ways. None of these has a universally right answer — it depends on your scope, your elevation and how much of the calendar you control.

Take a pre-approved colour

Skip an approval entirely

Illustration of a row of six muted heritage paint colour swatches (illustration)
What it is
Choosing from the colours the Village has already agreed and holds at Village Hall.
Benefits
The Village states that certain pre-approved colours do not require zoning approval, so an entire step disappears from the programme.
Limits
You are choosing from someone else's palette, and the list was not published in a form we could read — you have to go and look.
On timing
It removes an approval from the critical path, which on a small job can be the difference between one month and two.
Best for
An owner repainting for maintenance or resale who has no strong colour view.

Submit three swatches

Make the case for your colour

Open-plan kitchen looking through to the living space beyond
What it is
The Village's published route: exterior painting requires zoning approval, and you submit three colour swatches with the application.
Benefits
You get the house you actually want, and a documented approval that settles the question for good.
Limits
It is a zoning approval, so it runs on the zoning side of the office rather than the building side, and we publish no duration for it because the Village publishes none.
On timing
Start it early. It is independent of the building review, so it can run alongside rather than after.
Best for
Anyone repainting as part of a wider renovation, where the elevation is changing anyway.

Which oneIf you have no strong view, look at the pre-approved list first — the Village says it removes the approval, and a removed approval is worth more than a preferred shade. If you do have a view, submit the three swatches and start that conversation at the same time as the building application, not after it. The mistake is doing it last.

File the whole scope

Full plans, once

Wet-room bathroom with a freestanding tub and an open walk-in shower sharing one tiled floor
What it is
The entire project described in one application, which is what the Village's "full plans" requirement is built around.
Benefits
One review, one inspection sequence, one closeout. Trades follow each other properly instead of returning.
Limits
You live through the whole disruption at once, and the scope has to be settled before filing.
Against the rule
It is the reading the Village's own wording points to: full plans, reviewed and approved, before issuance.
Best for
Anyone who can be decisive early, and anyone who can be out of the affected rooms for a continuous run.

Start with one room

A bounded first project

White shaker vanity with a quartz top, undermount basin and brushed nickel tap
What it is
A genuinely self-contained first scope — one bathroom, one kitchen — filed and built on its own.
Benefits
The disruption is bounded and the spend is spread. On an occupied house this is sometimes the only realistic route.
Limits
Every later phase is its own application, its own review and its own inspection sequence, and shared services get touched more than once.
Against the rule
Legitimate when the scope really is separate. Not legitimate as a way of filing a partial version of one big job — "full plans" means the plans for the work being applied for.
Best for
Occupied homes, and owners who would rather protect the calendar than the total.

Which onePhase for a reason you would happily explain to the Building Permit Coordinator — occupancy, budget, a child's school year. Do not phase in order to file less than the full plans for the work you are actually doing; that is the thing the Village's wording is written to prevent, and it turns one review into three.

Consult before you start

The Village published this option

Fluted oak vanity with an integrated basin, black tap and a backlit mirror cabinet beside a window
What it is
Taking the Village at its word: "Exceptions may apply, so consult with the Building Permit Coordinator before initiating any work."
Benefits
You find out whether an exception applies before you have spent anything, from the person who decides.
Limits
It costs a call within Village Hall's published hours, and a small office has one of most things.
What it avoids
A stop-work conversation, which on a village street is a conversation with neighbours as well as with the Village.
Best for
Every job. Genuinely — this is the Village's own published advice.

File and let review answer it

Let the process decide

Dark wide-plank flooring in an open interior with material sample boards on display stands
What it is
Submitting the application and letting the review tell you what the scope triggers.
Benefits
Nothing waits on a phone call, and the answer arrives in writing against the application.
Limits
If the scope reaches zoning, or the elevation, you learn that after the drawings are done rather than before.
What it avoids
Nothing that a consultation does not avoid earlier and more cheaply.
Best for
A scope so plainly ordinary that no exception could apply — which is rarer than it sounds.

Which oneConsult first. This is the one comparison on this page with a clear answer, and it is the Village's own: it published the invitation, and a municipality that writes "consult before initiating any work" on its permit page has told you what it prefers. We make that call as a matter of routine before filing.

What moves the cost and the calendar in Biscayne Park

Tick whatever applies. This will not produce a price — no honest one exists before someone has seen the property — but it will show which parts of your project are carrying the time and the risk.

What this points to

We do not publish figures, and we do not publish permit fees either: the Village adopted its Amended Master Building Fee Schedule on 7 February 2023 and publishes it, which is a better answer than anything we could print here. You get a real, itemised number from us in writing after a site visit.

Stage 06 · Finish

What to expect from a small Village office

Biscayne Park publishes less than a large city does, and what it publishes is more specific. Everything below is either quoted from the Village's own pages or explicitly flagged as something the Village does not publish.

The hours are the constraint

Village Hall runs Monday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., and Fridays 9:00 a.m. to noon. There is a closed hour in the middle of every day and a half-day at the end of the week.

One coordinator

The Village names a Building Permit Coordinator and one number, 305-899-8000. In a village this is an advantage — you reach the person who decides — provided you call inside the window.

Consultation is invited

The Village's own words are "consult with the Building Permit Coordinator before initiating any work". That is published guidance, not a courtesy.

Full plans, not partial

Submission of full plans is required for review and approval before a building permit issues. Filing a fragment to start early is the thing this rule exists to stop.

Online filing

The Village uses OpenGov, and suggests searching by the type of work — type "electrical" for an electrical permit.

Approval precedes work

Applications "must be approved prior to commencing any work". There is no soft reading of that sentence.

Paint is separate

Exterior painting is a zoning approval with three colour swatches, unless the colour is pre-approved at Village Hall. It does not travel with the building permit.

What is not published

The Village publishes no plan-review timeframe, no inspection cut-off time and no exemption threshold. Where a number is missing from this page, it is missing because the Village does not state it.

What we will actually stand behind

Only claims that are either public record or visible in the work on this page. Nothing about awards, nothing about rankings, and no numbers we cannot show you.

Licensed, bonded and insured

Elbaz Construction is a licensed Florida general contractor, CBC1265280. Permits are pulled in the company's name, and the Village asks owners directly to ensure their contractor is licensed and insured — a check you can make on us before signing anything.

We treat the consultation as part of the job

The Village invites a call before work starts. We make it as a matter of routine, because a five-minute answer from the Building Permit Coordinator is worth more than an assumption carried into a submission.

We file it ourselves

Design, the permit application and the construction are handled by one company, so a reviewer's comment does not sit waiting on a hand-off between two firms.

Full plans means full plans

We do not file a partial scope to get started. The Village's rule and our own interest point the same way: one complete submission is faster than three cycles of catching up.

Envelope documentation kept straight

In the HVHZ what is inspected is the pairing of installed product and approval paperwork. We keep them matched, because an envelope inspection that fails on documentation costs exactly as much as one that fails on workmanship.

The colour that was approved is the colour that goes on

Where zoning approval attaches to a swatch, the finished elevation is checked against that swatch. Approving one colour and applying another is a code case waiting to happen.

Permits closed out

Every permit we pull is closed out at the end of the job. An open permit follows the property and reappears when it is sold.

One point of contact

The same person from the first site visit to the walkthrough, across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach — 104 municipalities, each with its own filing route.

Questions, by stage

Filter to the part of the job you are thinking about.

Is Biscayne Park in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone?Your address

Yes. Biscayne Park is in Miami-Dade County, and the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone covers Miami-Dade and Broward and nowhere else in the state. In practice that governs the outside of the building — roofing, windows, doors and how they are fixed — and it means product approval documentation is part of the submission rather than something produced later.

Does the Village have a design review board?Your address

The Village lists a Planning and Design Review Board among its standing boards. We do not publish its meeting schedule, its deadlines or the scopes that reach it, because the Village does not publish those in a form we could read. Ask the Building Permit Coordinator whether your scope reaches the Board, and ask before drawings are finished rather than after.

When is Village Hall actually open?Your address

The Village publishes Monday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., and Fridays 9:00 a.m. to noon, closed on holidays. There is a closed hour in the middle of each day. It is a small office, so the person who answers is usually the person who knows.

Do I need a permit to remodel my kitchen or bathroom here?Permit or not

In practice, yes. The Village names electrical, plumbing, mechanical, roofing, pools and fencing, and then adds "both interior and exterior construction or repairs". A kitchen or bathroom remodel is inside several of those at once. The Village also invites you to consult with the Building Permit Coordinator before starting, because "exceptions may apply" — so the honest answer is yes, and the free answer is a phone call.

The Village says "exceptions may apply". What are they?Permit or not

The Village does not publish a list, and we are not going to guess at one. What it publishes instead is a person: "consult with the Building Permit Coordinator before initiating any work." That is unusual and it is genuinely useful — a larger city would publish a table and leave you to interpret it. Here you can ask.

Do repairs need a permit, or only new work?Permit or not

The Village's wording is "both interior and exterior construction or repairs", so it does not draw the line most people expect between building something new and repairing something old. Ask about your specific repair rather than assuming it is too small to count.

Do I really need a permit for a garage sale?Permit or not

The Village's permit page says so, and adds that the number of sales per year is limited. It does not publish the cap, so neither do we. It is on this page because it tells you something true about how Biscayne Park works: the permit is how the Village knows what is happening on its streets, not only a safety instrument.

What does "full plans" mean in practice?Filing

It means the plans for the whole of the work being applied for, not a first instalment. The Village requires submission of full plans for review and approval before a building permit issues. The practical consequence is that the scope has to be settled before we file — including the parts you are unsure about, because adding them later restarts the review.

How do I apply?Filing

Online. The Village uses OpenGov for permitting and suggests searching by the type of work — type "electrical" for an electrical permit, "dumpster" for a temporary dumpster permit. Everything is uploaded against the application rather than handed over a counter.

Can I start work while the application is being reviewed?Filing

No. The Village states that applications "must be approved prior to commencing any work". There is no phased reading of that, and on a village lot early work is visible from the street on the first day.

How long does a permit take here?Filing

We do not publish a number, because the Village does not publish one. What we can tell you honestly is which approvals your scope triggers — building, zoning, or both — and what we do to keep the comment cycles down. Anyone quoting you a Biscayne Park review time is quoting you their own average, not the Village's.

Do I need approval to repaint the outside of my house?Paint & appearance

Yes, unless your colour is already on the Village's list. The Village states that exterior painting requires zoning approval and that you submit three colour swatches with the application — and that certain pre-approved colours held at Village Hall do not require the approval. This is the reverse of what most South Florida owners expect, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you buy paint.

What are the pre-approved colours?Paint & appearance

The Village describes them as being at Village Hall. They were not published in a form we could read, so we do not reproduce or paraphrase them — a paraphrased palette would be worse than none. Ask the Building Permit Coordinator to see the list before you choose, because a colour on it removes an entire approval from your programme.

Is the paint approval part of the building permit?Paint & appearance

No, and that is the point. It is a zoning approval, which means it is answered by a different part of the process from the one that reviews your structural drawings. If you are already opening a permit for other work, settle the colour in the same conversation rather than discovering it at the end of the job.

Does interior paint need anything?Paint & appearance

The Village's rule as published is about exterior painting. Interior finishes are part of the scope of the work you are permitting rather than a separate appearance question. If your project is interior-only and touches no service, ask the Building Permit Coordinator — that is exactly the "exceptions may apply" conversation.

What happens if you find unpermitted work from a previous owner?On site

We stop and tell you, before it is covered up. It is more common than people expect in South Florida, and it has to be resolved rather than built over — both because an inspector will find it and because it becomes yours at the point you conceal it.

Can I live in the house while you work?On site

Often yes, and it changes the programme rather than the price alone. Containment, protection and phasing all cost days. The honest version of this conversation happens at the site visit, where we can look at where the work is relative to where you sleep and cook.

What about deliveries and parking on a village street?On site

Agreed before the first delivery rather than after the first complaint. Frontages here are narrow, and access genuinely constrains how fast a trade can work — it belongs in the programme, not in the apologies.

Why won't you publish a price?Cost

Because for a remodel the same square footage can differ several-fold depending on what is behind the wall, which disciplines are involved and whether the elevation changes. A published rate would be a guess. You get an itemised figure in writing after a site visit, and it says what happens if something is found during demolition.

What will the permit itself cost?Cost

The Village adopted an Amended Master Building Fee Schedule on 7 February 2023 and publishes it, which is a better answer than any number we could print here. Whatever it comes to appears itemised on your proposal rather than folded into a round figure.

How are inspections booked in Biscayne Park?Inspections

Against the issued permit, in the order the work reaches them. The Village does not publish an inspection cut-off time or a booking window, so we do not print one — where a number is missing from this page it is missing because the Village does not state it. We book to whatever the Village asks for at the time and plan the trades around it.

Does the colour get checked at the end?Inspections

Where a zoning approval attaches to a swatch, the finished elevation should match the colour that was approved. We check it, because approving one colour and applying another is a code case waiting to happen and it is entirely avoidable.

What happens to the permit when the job is finished?Afterwards

It gets closed out. We do not leave permits open, because an open permit stays attached to the property and reappears at sale, when it is somebody else's leverage rather than an administrative detail.

What paperwork should I keep?Afterwards

The permit record, the approved drawings, the product approval documentation for anything in the envelope, any zoning approval for the colour, and the closeout. In the HVHZ the envelope paperwork is the part a future buyer, insurer or inspector will actually ask for.

Do you work anywhere else in Miami-Dade?Afterwards

Yes — across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, 104 municipalities in total. The filing routes differ genuinely between them: Biscayne Park files through OpenGov and treats paint as zoning, its neighbours do neither, and those differences are a working detail for us rather than a surprise.

Client experience

What clients say, in their own words

Live Google reviews for Elbaz Construction, pulled straight from our Google Business Profile — not retyped, not edited and not selected by us.

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Service Areas

Proudly serving homeowners across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach

(754) 236-0675

104 municipalities across three counties — and we hold the licence to build in all of them. Not sure about your address? Ask us.

Next steps

Where to go from here

Grouped by what you are trying to do, not by category.

Where you are

The county and the neighbouring cities

Permits and approvals

The parts of this page we do as a service

The work itself

What we most often build here

Bigger moves

When the answer is more than a remodel

Read first

Before you commit to anything

Start here

Start with the address

Almost everything on this page turns on where the property actually is and what the street can see of it. Tell us the address and what you are hoping to do, and the first conversation is a useful one.

What happens next

  1. We read it properly and come back to you, usually the same or the next working day.
  2. A short call to understand the property, the scope and what is driving the timing.
  3. We check what your scope triggers — building, zoning, or both — before we form a view.
  4. A site visit, because what is behind a South Florida wall cannot be judged from photographs.
  5. A written, itemised proposal, including what happens if something is found during demolition.
  6. If you go ahead, we consult the Building Permit Coordinator, file the full plans through OpenGov and manage the review.
Preferred contact method

We use your details only to respond to this enquiry. No lists, no resale.

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Your details are with the Elbaz Construction team and we will come back to you, usually the same or next working day. If it is urgent, call (754) 236-0675.

Open living area of a studio accessory dwelling unit under a vaulted ceiling with an exposed beam

Two approvals, one conversation. Let's have it early.

Biscayne Park tells you what it wants: full plans, an online filing, approval before work starts, and a separate answer about how the house will look. The value of a contractor here is knowing which of those your project triggers before the drawings are done, not after.

Book a Site Visit Call (754) 236-0675

Or see the rest of what we cover on the Miami-Dade County page if your property is somewhere else in the county.