Remodeling in Hollywood
runs on a clock
the City publishes.

That is an address-level question and only the City can answer it definitively, but Hollywood names four districts on its own Historic Preservation page: the Historic Hollywood Business District along Hollywood Boulevard from 21st Avenue to Young Circle, the Harrison/Tyler Historic Districts, the Beach Historic District and the Historic Hollywood Lakes Multiple Resource District. A property can also be individually designated without being in a district. We confirm the designation before anything is drawn, because it changes the route.

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

Hollywood has a Community Redevelopment Agency with its own area. For building work the clearest published consequence is narrow: the City's FAQ says a paint permit is required for painting commercial property inside the CRA or a historic district, and is not required for single-family homes anywhere. If you own a house, the CRA is unlikely to change your permit route; if you own a commercial building, check whether the address is inside it.

It can decide whether you file at all. Hollywood's published HB 803 guidance excludes properties in flood hazard areas from the minor-work exemption, and the separate exemption for temporary flood and hurricane protection is written only for properties outside a Special Flood Hazard Area. So flood designation is not a background detail here -- it is one of the switches.

In practice, yes. Hollywood lists electrical, plumbing, mechanical and gas work as always requiring a permit regardless of cost, and a kitchen or bathroom remodel touches at least two of those. The HB 803 exemption for minor work under $7,500 covers a short and specific list -- wood fence pickets and panels excluding posts, floor tiles and gutters -- and is based on the total value of the entire project.

Hollywood's own page, effective 1 July 2026, lists repair or replacement of wood fence pickets and panels -- expressly excluding replacing the wood posts -- floor tiles, and gutters, for minor residential work under $7,500. It then lists what stays permitted whatever it costs: electrical, plumbing, mechanical and gas work, and structural work including railings, guards, pool barriers, fences, windows and doors, siding and soffits, roofing and elevated decks.

No, and the City closes this explicitly: the exemption is based on the total value of the entire construction project. Splitting a scope to get under the threshold does not create an exemption, and unpermitted work does not stay invisible -- it surfaces on the property record when the house is sold.

Almost certainly not, if it is a house. The City's FAQ states that paint permits are only required for painting commercial property within the CRA or any of the historic districts, and are not required for single-family homes regardless of location. It is a good example of a Hollywood rule that is tied to an area and a building type rather than applying citywide.

Hollywood's HB 803 page names engineering and zoning permits -- giving driveways and pavers as its examples -- as outside the minor-work exemption, along with landscape permits. So paving is not covered by the exemption, and what it does require depends on the scope and where it sits relative to the right of way.

Accela Citizen Access. The City states that effective 4 August 2026 it has transitioned to ACA for all new permit applications. The older BCLA ePermits portal now answers only for permits that already exist, and you can tell them apart by the number: ePermits numbers are a letter and the year, like B24-100000, while Accela numbers read like RES-MECH-24-000001.

Hollywood publishes a Licensed Contractor Search on its own site. The City requires a contractor to be registered and up to date with verified insurance, workers' compensation and licence before a submission is accepted, so this is a check you can do yourself before signing anything, with anybody.

There is a counter, and there are appointments. The Building Division is at the Development Services Hub, second floor, 2600 Hollywood Boulevard, open Monday to Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with anyone needing extensive assistance asked to be in line by 5:30 p.m. Consultation appointments with a permit representative or plan examiner run 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. on those days, and arrivals are managed through the QLess virtual check-in system.

It is Hollywood's same-day electronic review, and it covers four residential types only: A/C replacement, water heater, reroof and electrical service change. The submission window is 6 p.m. Tuesday to 9 a.m. Wednesday, it is stand-alone permits only rather than sub-permits to a master permit, it is capped at ten submittals per applicant, and payment has to be in by 3 p.m. that Wednesday for the permit to issue electronically. A remodel does not qualify -- it is multi-trade by definition.

We do not publish a number, because Hollywood does not publish one either except for the four express types, where it says same-day review. Anything else depends on the disciplines involved, whether a historic review applies and how many comment cycles the submission draws. What we can tell you honestly is which of those apply to your project, and what we do to keep the cycles down.

It is the historic-district approval that sits alongside the building permit for designated properties. Hollywood takes Certificates of Appropriateness and other historic-district permits online through Accela, and the Historic Preservation Board's stated purpose includes assuring the compatibility of restored, rehabilitated or replaced structures within designated districts.

It can, and the City says so rather than leaving it implied: its Express Permitting page warns that applications in a historic district may be delayed as additional review may be required. That is not a reason to avoid the work -- it is a reason to know the designation before the calendar is set rather than after.

Windows are named by the City as structural work that always needs a permit, and in a designated property the design also has to survive a compatibility review. The two questions -- does it meet the Code, and is it appropriate to the district -- are answered by different people, and both have to be satisfied. It is very doable; it is not a same-week decision.

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.

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.

Design, permitting and construction are handled by the same company, which is the point: a plan examiner's comment comes back to the people who drew it. Specialist trades are run by us on our permit rather than left to coordinate themselves.

Because for a remodel the same square footage can differ several-fold depending on what is behind the wall, which disciplines are involved and what the district requires. 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.

The City publishes a Permit Cost Estimator on its own site, 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.

The City's automated inspection line runs 24 hours a day and wants the permit number. What matters is the cut-off: Hollywood states that inspections scheduled Monday through Thursday prior to 8:00 p.m. will be scheduled for the next business day, and that inspections scheduled on Saturday or Sunday will be scheduled on the second business day.

The City's rule is specific: to cancel an inspection you must call the automated inspection line before 5:00 a.m. for an inspection scheduled later that day. After that the slot has gone.

Hollywood does offer after-hours inspections, but they require an after-hours request form to be submitted and approved, and an additional fee per discipline is added to the permit. It is a real option for work that genuinely cannot happen in the day, not a routine shortcut.

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.

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

Yes -- across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, 104 municipalities in total. The filing routes differ genuinely between them: Hollywood is on Accela since 4 August 2026, its neighbours are not all on the same system, and the differences are a working detail for us rather than a surprise.