All New Construction Custom Home Construction Design-Build New Homes Energy-Efficient New Home Construction Ground-Up Multi-Family Construction Lot Development & Site Prep Luxury Custom Home Construction Modular & Prefab Construction New Construction Permitting Second-Story Additions Spec Home Building
All Residential Remodeling Aging-in-Place / Universal Design Remodel Condo Renovation Full-Service Home Renovation Historic Home Renovation Home Additions Home Office Conversion Interior Design-Build Remodel Multi-Generational Home Remodel Storm Damage Restoration Remodel Whole-Home Renovation
All Commercial Remodeling Commercial ADA Compliance Remodel Commercial Property Renovation Hospitality & Hotel Renovation Medical & Dental Office Remodel Multi-Family Common Area Renovation Office Build-Out Restaurant Build-Out Retail Space Renovation Tenant Improvement Construction Warehouse & Industrial Renovation
All Kitchen Remodeling Custom Cabinetry Full Kitchen Remodel Kitchen Cabinet Refacing & Replacement Kitchen Countertop Installation Kitchen Island Installation Kitchen Layout & Design Luxury Kitchen Remodel Open-Concept Kitchen Remodel Outdoor Kitchen Construction Small & Galley Kitchen Remodel
All Bathroom Remodeling ADA & Accessible Bathroom Remodel Bathroom Vanity & Storage Remodel Bathtub-to-Shower Conversion Full Bathroom Remodel Luxury Bathroom Remodel Powder Room Remodel Primary/Master Bath Suite Remodel Small Bathroom Remodel Spa Bathroom Remodel Walk-In Shower Conversion
All Roofing Flat & Low-Slope Roofing Metal Roofing New Construction Roofing Roof Coating & Maintenance Roof Inspection & Wind Mitigation Roof Repair Roof Replacement Shingle Roofing Storm & Hurricane Roof Damage Repair Tile Roofing
All Windows & Doors Entry Door Replacement French Door Installation Garage Door Replacement Hurricane-Rated Window Systems Impact Door Installation Impact Window Installation Sliding Glass Door Replacement Storefront & Commercial Glass Systems Window & Door Repair Window Replacement (Non-Impact / Standard)
All Flooring Commercial Flooring Custom Flooring Design Flooring Removal & Subfloor Repair Hardwood Flooring Installation Kitchen & Bathroom Flooring Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring Outdoor & Pool Deck Flooring Porcelain Flooring Installation Terrazzo Restoration Tile Flooring Installation
All Exterior Remodeling Composite Decking Exterior Painting & Stucco Repair Landscape Hardscape Design Outdoor Kitchen & Living Space Outdoor Living Renovation Paver Driveway Installation Paver Patio Installation Pergola Installation Pool Deck Pavers Wood Deck Construction
All ADUs / Garage Conversions ADU Design-Build ADU Permitting & Zoning Attached ADU Addition Detached ADU Construction Garage Remodel (Non-ADU)Garage-to-ADU Conversion Mother-in-Law Suite Construction Rental ADU / Income Property Construction Studio ADU Construction Two-Story ADU Construction
All services
Projects
Design
Permits
Financing
Contact
About
All Miami-Dade County Aventura Bal Harbour Bay Harbor Islands Biscayne Park Coral Gables Cutler Bay Doral El Portal Florida City Golden Beach Hialeah Hialeah Gardens Homestead Indian Creek Key Biscayne Medley Miami Miami Beach Miami Gardens Miami Lakes Miami Shores Miami Springs North Bay Village North Miami North Miami Beach Opa-locka Palmetto Bay Pinecrest South Miami Sunny Isles Beach Surfside Sweetwater Virginia Gardens West Miami
All Broward County Coconut Creek Cooper City Coral Springs Dania Beach Davie Deerfield Beach Fort Lauderdale Hallandale Beach Hillsboro Beach Hollywood Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Lauderdale Lakes Lauderhill Lazy Lake Lighthouse Point Margate Miramar North Lauderdale Oakland Park Parkland Pembroke Park Pembroke Pines Plantation Pompano Beach Sea Ranch Lakes Southwest Ranches Sunrise Tamarac Weston West Park Wilton Manors
All Palm Beach County Atlantis Belle Glade Boca Raton Boynton Beach Briny Breezes Cloud Lake Delray Beach Glen Ridge Golf Greenacres Gulf Stream Haverhill Highland Beach Hypoluxo Juno Beach Jupiter Jupiter Inlet Colony Lake Clarke Shores Lake Park Lake Worth Beach Lantana Loxahatchee Groves Manalapan Mangonia Park North Palm Beach Ocean Ridge Pahokee Palm Beach Palm Beach Gardens Palm Beach Shores Palm Springs Riviera Beach Royal Palm Beach South Bay South Palm Beach Tequesta Wellington Westlake West Palm Beach
FAQs

Miami Beach
publishes the binder.
The first tab is
whether you need one.

Home remodeling and construction in Miami Beach, planned against the City's own published process. Most work here is approved over a counter, not at a hearing — and the City says so itself. We work out which file a project actually opens before anything is drawn, then assemble and carry it.

Start a Miami Beach Review See What Goes in the File

Licensed, bonded & insured · CBC1265280
104 municipalities across 3 counties
Design-build: permitting & construction in-house

Miami-Dade · Broward & Palm Beach Counties

Scroll

Tab 00 — Start here

Tell us the address, and we will tell you which file it opens

Thanks — that came through.

Your enquiry has been sent to the Elbaz Construction team. A member of the team will call you back within one business day.

Illustrative library photograph, not an Elbaz project: rolled construction drawings and tracing paper tubes on a desk

TAB 01

Tab 01 — Which file this is

Not every project
goes to a board.
Miami Beach says so

The City of Miami Beach runs a Design Review Board and a Historic Preservation Board, and both are real constraints on real projects. What gets lost is the City's own qualifier — the one that decides whether a project takes weeks at a counter or months to a hearing.

Illustrative library photograph, not an Elbaz project: a hand pointing at a floor plan on a table

Illustrative library photograph, not an Elbaz project. Reading a plan set is where the question is actually settled.

On new single-family construction the Planning Department publishes this: “Not necessarily. If the new home complies with all zoning and design requirements necessary for administrative approval, review and approval of the Design Review Board is not required.” The Board becomes necessary when the design asks for something — “If any design waivers or variances are requested, or if the home includes an understory, review, and approval of the Design Review Board is required.”

Inside a historic district the same logic runs the other way round. The City lists what its own staff may approve without a Board hearing: “repairs, window and storefront replacement, awnings, canopies, exterior paint, minor demolition to address life-safety, accessibility, mechanical and other applicable code requirements, and façade and building restoration.” A great deal of ordinary remodeling sits inside that sentence. Total demolition never does.

Local historic districts

The City states it has fourteen. Whether a specific address sits inside one — and whether the building is classified Contributing or Non-Contributing — is a lookup, not an assumption, and we do it before design starts.

Months a board approval lasts

“Board approvals are valid for 18 months,” and “an application can be made to the board to extend the approval for up to one year.” That is a window to get a full building permit in, and it starts at the hearing, not at ground-breaking.

Applications an agenda may carry

The City caps it: “the number of applications placed on an agenda may not exceed 15 in order to allow sufficient time for the applicants to present.” A complete file is not a courtesy here; incomplete ones are not scheduled.

Year the flood test looks back over

Miami Beach tracks improvement costs over a “cumulative substantial improvement” period of one year. Two permits inside twelve months are added together for the 50% test.

Run of white impact windows and a glazed door around the corner of a rendered elevation, with a bay window to the right

TAB 02

Tab 02 — The reviewing bodies

Four bodies, and the one that will actually read your file

Miami Beach staffs its land use boards out of one Planning Department at 1700 Convention Center Drive, and publishes a 2026 application guide for each. They do not all review the same thing, and a project does not choose between them — the property and the scope do.

Illustrative library photograph, not an Elbaz project: two people reviewing drawings together across a table

HPB

Historic Preservation Board

Certificates of Appropriateness inside a local historic district or on a designated site

The City defines the instrument plainly: a Certificate of Appropriateness is “an approval issued by the Historic Preservation Board or by staff of the Planning Department indicating that new construction, alteration or demolition of a historic structure or an improvement within a historic district is [in] accordance with the review criteria.” Note that the same sentence carries both routes — Board and staff.

Suitability. Applies where the property is inside one of the City's local historic districts or is an individually designated historic site. Whether yours is, is a matter of record and is checked, never assumed.

Maintenance. Classification does not change the test. The City: “all buildings that are located within any local historic district are reviewed in accordance with the Certificate of Appropriateness Criteria” — Contributing and Non-Contributing alike.

HearsNew construction, alteration and demolition in a district

Always a hearingTotal demolition, regardless of classification

Staff may approveThe published minor-works list

Approval valid18 months, extendable up to one year

Guide2026 HPB Application Guide, published by the City

Illustrative library photograph, not an Elbaz project: a measured architectural drawing with a scale rule and set square

DRB

Design Review Board

Design review outside historic districts

Seven members. “The Design Review Approval, including any design waivers, requires four (4) affirmative votes. Any variances associated with the Design Review approval requires five (5) affirmative votes.” A compliant house that asks for nothing may never come here at all.

MembersSeven

Design approvalFour affirmative votes

With a varianceFive affirmative votes

MeetsCity Commission Chambers, 3rd floor, from 9:00 a.m.

Illustrative library photograph, not an Elbaz project: a structural reinforcement detail drawing

BOA

Board of Adjustment

Variances — but only when nothing else has taken the file

The City is explicit that a bundled application is not split in two: “if your application includes an understory, any design waiver, or variance, the entire application, including the variance is reviewed by the Design Review Board (or Historic Preservation Board if the home is in a Historic District or individually designated Historic).”

HearsVariances where no waiver and no district applies

VoteFive affirmative votes for any variance

Cannot be asked forUse variances; FAR; required parking

Also excludedHeight increases exceeding three feet

Illustrative library photograph, not an Elbaz project: an architect drawing a floor plan by hand

FDAS

Formal Determination of Architectural Significance

A single-family route that is not historic designation

Filed “by the owner of a single-family home typically … when a homeowner wishes to substantially keep the current home and expand it.” The City is careful that this is not designation: “Homes that are formally classified as Architecturally Significant are not historically designated.”

May qualifyHomes constructed prior to 1966

New workNeed not match the style of the current home

The tradeTaking the incentives means keeping the style and character

NotHistoric designation, and not a demolition restriction

BLDG

Building Department

The permit itself, whatever the boards did or did not do

Every route ends here. Applications are filed through the City's Civic Access portal, the application is notarised and signed by the owner or a representative and by a registered contractor, and “the plan review for all disciplines is conducted simultaneously.”

PortalCivic Access / Citizen Self Service

Review cycleApproximately 7 business days, per the City

TypicalTwo to three cycles, per the City

Often requiredMiami-Dade County approval before the City concludes

Impact entry door with an arched transom set into a rendered surround

TAB 03

Tab 03 — What review is looking at

Openings, elevations, and the things bolted to them

Design review and preservation review are about what a building looks like from outside. That makes an unglamorous list — openings, wall finish, roof line, and the covered structures added to a property — the actual subject of the file. These are Elbaz Construction projects in South Florida; none is presented as a Miami Beach project or as having gone through board review.

The same front elevation complete: dark tile roof, white render, and the finished concrete and turf ribbon driveway — South Florida project by Elbaz Construction: a completed front elevation with a concrete-and-turf ribbon driveway. Roof, render, openings and driveway are each separately described in a submittal.

Entry door, arched transom

An impact entry door set into a rendered surround. On a review file this is a door schedule entry, an elevation, and a product approval with a tested pressure rating.

TAB 04

Tab 04 — What is in the file

The City names the documents. All of them.

The 2026 Design Review Board application guide lists what goes in a first submittal, and it is not a general request for drawings. Each of these is a separate named item, and the file is not accepted until they are all there.

Pre-application checklist

Issued to you at the pre-application meeting: “During the pre-application meeting, the applicant will receive a checklist of all required documentation necessary to submit a complete application.” The meeting request itself must be made seven days before the calendar deadline.

Land Use Board Application and Letter of Intent

The application form is published on the Planning Department website. The Letter of Intent is the document that explains, in words, what the drawings are asking for.

Records of the existing structure

Named in the guide as “Permit card, permit drawings, prior business tax receipt, etc.” On an older Miami Beach property this is often the item that takes longest, because it is the one nobody has.

A recent signed and sealed survey

Recent, signed and sealed. Not the survey from the purchase, unless nothing has changed since.

Architectural and landscape drawings

Landscape drawings by a Florida registered landscape architect. Plans must be organised in the same order as the checklist items, and drawings “must be formatted for printing at 11x17, with all text legible at that size.”

Mailing labels, list of owners, certified letter and map

The City mails notice to every property owner within 375 feet, advertises in the Miami Herald and posts the site. The applicant supplies the labels that make that possible.

There is a rule about the files themselves that catches people once: “The uploaded file retains the name as it has been saved on your computer. The file name cannot be changed, and the file cannot be deleted once it is uploaded.” Electronic files must be under 25 MB, PDFs flattened, images and renderings below 150 DPI, and every page of a document in one PDF. A submittal that is right in substance can still be rejected on how it was named and packaged.

Dark-framed multi-slide impact door standing open onto a tiled terrace

TAB 05

Tab 05 — The published sequence

Step 0 to Step 9, in the City’s own numbering

Both 2026 board guides run the same steps. This is the part of a Miami Beach project that can be known in advance, which is exactly why it should be planned backwards from the hearing date rather than forwards from the sketch.

STEP 0–1b

Traffic study, then pre-application

Where the checklist comes from

A traffic study, if one is required, opens a separate Transportation case file and a joint methodology meeting before anything else. Then the pre-application submission goes through Citizen Self Service, and the pre-application meeting produces the checklist the rest of the file is measured against.

Request the meetingSeven days before the calendar deadline

BringPreliminary design documents, survey, letter of intent

Traffic studyGenerally multifamily over 4 units, or over 5,000 sq ft commercial/mixed-use

OutputThe checklist of everything your file must contain

TAB 06

Tab 06 — Scope, as built

What the words on a submittal turn into

Three scopes that a Miami Beach file would describe in separate sheets, photographed on South Florida projects by Elbaz Construction. Wide frame and close frame in each row are the same property.

Front elevation of a single-storey South Florida house during works: new concrete and turf ribbon driveway, aluminium louvre screen, barrier tape still up

Rear elevation of a two-storey house with a newly built covered porch, its slab poured and the garden not yet reinstated

Wider view of the same rear elevation, showing the covered porch and a separate freestanding cover at the boundary

Long dark-framed patio cover finished across the rear of a single-storey house, with ceiling fans installed

White-framed patio cover part way through construction, with the spoil from the footings still on the grass

A Final Order is recorded against the property in Miami-Dade County records. Its conditions are construction obligations, and the Planning Department runs its own final inspection to confirm what was built matches what was approved.

Quality check

Conditions transcribed into the construction set and checked at the planning final.

Prevents

A completed project that fails its planning final on a condition nobody carried forward.

TAB 08

Tab 08 — The permit itself

The building permit runs on its own clock

Board approval, where it applies, is not a permit. The Building Department's process is separate, published, and the same whether a board was involved or not.

Filing

Applications go through the City’s Civic Access portal, and contact details must be registered there before applying.
The application is notarised and signed by the owner or their representative and by a registered contractor.
Architect or engineer drawings carry a digital signature and seal; contractor plans carry the licence number, signature and notarisation.
A Construction Cost Affidavit where the job value exceeds $5,000.
A Construction Parking Management Plan for jobs of $250,000 and above, and a sediment and erosion control affidavit for land-disturbing work.

Review

“The plan review for all disciplines is conducted simultaneously.”
Each cycle takes approximately seven business days, and the City states that on average it takes two to three cycles.
Miami-Dade County approval is often required before the City’s own approval concludes.
Pre-submittal meetings are available to design professionals at about 75% complete drawings.
Expedited review is available only after at least one review cycle; requests are accepted Monday to Thursday by 2 p.m. and those reviews run at weekends.

Building and closing out

Inspections are performed Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., requested and cancelled through Civic Access.
A recorded Notice of Commencement is required for jobs over $5,000.
The inspector expects the approved full-size plans, the permit card, the recorded notice, an address visible from the street, access, and a ladder where one is needed.
An inspection failed more than twice carries four times the initial inspection fee — the City publishes the multiplier; the figures are in its fee schedule.
A Certificate of Occupancy or Completion is requested on the City’s form, with a temporary certificate available where work is incomplete.

The 50% rule, as Miami Beach applies it

The City tracks improvement and repair costs over a “cumulative substantial improvement” period of one year, dividing the sum of job values for all City permits in the last year by the property value from the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser or a certified depreciated replacement cost appraisal. At or above 50%, the work is substantial — and then, in the City’s words, “every aspect of the structure must be made compliant.” Phasing across a calendar year is a code decision, not a scheduling one.

Elevation certificates

The City has collected FEMA Elevation Certificates prepared by a professional land surveyor since 1995 for new construction and substantial improvements, and calls the certificate “an important document that every homeowner should have.” It also offers free technical assistance on reducing flood hazards. Which flood zone a specific address sits in is a lookup we do, not a guess.

Recertification — and what it does not cover

Under Miami-Dade County Code, buildings are recertified at 30 years and every ten years after, on a structural and electrical report by a Florida-licensed engineer or architect. It expressly does not apply to single-family residences or duplexes, or to minor buildings. If you own a house in Miami Beach, you are not on a recertification clock; if you own a unit in a building, the building is.

High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

Miami-Dade County sits inside the HVHZ, so windows, doors, roofing and the things attached to an envelope carry product approvals with tested pressure ratings and an anchor schedule the installer must follow exactly. On an appearance-reviewed elevation this matters twice: the product has to be approved, and it has to look like what the board approved.

Everything above is the City of Miami Beach’s own published process, read on 11 August 2026. Requirements, deadlines and calendars change. Confirm the current position with the Building or Planning Department, or ask us to — we do it on every file. Nothing here is a fee quotation, a review-time promise, or an opinion about whether a specific application will be approved.

Screened enclosure completed against a rendered elevation, framed in dark aluminium with a dining table inside

TAB 09

Tab 09 — Two ways to go

The decisions that change a Miami Beach project most

None of these has a universally right answer. Each has a right answer for a specific property, and getting it wrong is expensive in months rather than in money.

Compared onKeep it inside staff reviewTake it to the board

What it means

Scope stays inside the work the City lists as staff-approvable

Design asks for a waiver, a variance, an understory, or total demolition

Calendar

No hearing date to hit

The City states three to four months to hearing, subject to completeness

Document load

The Building Department submittal

The board submittal as well, including notice labels and a paper package

Design freedom

Bounded by what already complies

Wider, at the cost of a public hearing and a recorded Final Order

Best when

The result you want is achievable without asking for anything

The project is worth the calendar, and the property can support the request

TAB 10

Tab 10 — The file, in order

A Miami Beach board file, front to back

Drawn from the City's own 2026 application guides. This is the order the tabs actually go in, and each one has to be finished before the next is worth starting.

This is a drawing, not a photograph, and it is a summary of the City of Miami Beach’s published 2026 application guides rather than a substitute for them. The checklist issued at your own pre-application meeting is the one that governs your file.

Pre-application checklist

Issued at the pre-application meeting. Everything below is measured against it.

Land Use Board Application

The City form, with signed and notarised affidavits and disclosures.

Letter of Intent

What the drawings are asking for, in words a board member can read quickly.

Records of the existing structure

Permit card, prior permit drawings, prior business tax receipt.

Signed and sealed survey

Recent. On a barrier island the survey is also the flood and elevation evidence.

Architectural drawings

In checklist order, formatted to print at 11x17 with legible text.

Landscape drawings

By a Florida registered landscape architect where the scope requires them.

Mailing labels and radius map

Owners within 375 feet, with the certification letter.

01 · Named to the convention

Submittal deadline date and document type, before upload.

02 · Under 25 MB, flattened

Renderings below 150 DPI. One PDF per document, all pages.

03 · Uploaded once

The name cannot be changed and the file cannot be deleted afterwards.

04 · Reviewed by every discipline

Transportation, Building, Public Works, Environmental, Urban Forestry, Fire and others as applicable.

05 · Printed and delivered

Originals to Central Services on the paper submittal deadline.

06 · Heard, then recorded

Final Order recorded in the public records of Miami-Dade County.

TAB 11

Tab 11 — What drives it

What actually moves a Miami Beach budget and calendar

We do not publish prices, and we do not publish review times as if they were ours to promise. What can be published honestly is which variables move them, and on a barrier island the list is not the same as it is inland.

What moves the number

Whether a board is involved at all

The single biggest fork. A scope that stays inside the City published staff-approvable list carries no hearing date, no notice mailing, no paper package and no recorded Final Order.

Flood compliance, triggered by a percentage

If the cumulative one-year test lands at or above 50%, the requirement is not a bigger permit — it is bringing the structure into compliance for its flood zone, which can include the lowest floor. That is a different project.

The condition of the record

Permit cards and prior drawings for an older Miami Beach property are frequently incomplete. Reconstructing the record is real work, it happens before design is finished, and it is not optional.

Product approvals on an appearance-reviewed elevation

HVHZ products have to be approved and installed to their anchor schedule. Where an elevation is also design-reviewed, the approved product and the approved appearance have to be the same thing — chosen once, not twice.

How many disciplines the scope wakes up

The City may assign a review to Transportation, Public Works, Environmental, Urban Forestry or Fire. Each is a separate reviewer who can fail the submittal.

Completeness, which is the City’s own emphasis

Timing is stated as depending “in part on the date the application is submitted, as well as the completeness of the application package.” Completeness is the half you control.

What happens after issue

Approval is not permission to build

A board approval is followed by the building permit process, which has its own review cycles and its own submittal.

Eighteen months, then an extension request

Board approvals are valid for 18 months, extendable on application to the board for up to one year.

Conditions become obligations

The conditions in a recorded Final Order bind the construction, and the Planning Department runs a final inspection to confirm what was built matches what was approved.

Revisions have their own path

A change after issue is a permit revision, not an informal adjustment, and where the change is visible it may be a change to what was approved on appearance too.

Inspection failures compound

The City publishes a multiplier for an inspection failed more than twice. It is cheaper to be ready than to be quick.

Covered terrace finished in travertine, looking out to the garden under a solid white roof

TAB 12

Tab 12 — The work itself

Elevations, openings and additions — the subject of the file

Five photographs of South Florida projects by Elbaz Construction, assembled as a moving sequence. Not footage, and not Miami Beach: these are the elements a Miami Beach submittal describes, photographed on our own projects.

One contractor, drawings through certificate

Design-build means the people who assemble the submittal are the people who build to it. Conditions in an approval do not have to survive a handover to be honoured.

We file in 104 municipalities

Miami Beach is one of them, and it is one of the more demanding. Filing across three counties is how we know that a process published this precisely is an advantage, not an obstacle.

Licence CBC1265280

Certified Building Contractor, licensed, bonded and insured. Verifiable with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Questions we are actually asked

No, and the City says so directly. For a new single-family home the Planning Department publishes: "Not necessarily. If the new home complies with all zoning and design requirements necessary for administrative approval, review and approval of the Design Review Board is not required." Board review becomes necessary where the design requests a waiver or a variance, or where it includes an understory. Inside a historic district, the City separately lists work its own staff may approve without a hearing.

The City lists it: "repairs, window and storefront replacement, awnings, canopies, exterior paint, minor demolition to address life-safety, accessibility, mechanical and other applicable code requirements, and façade and building restoration may be approved by staff." That covers a great deal of ordinary remodeling. It does not cover total demolition.

Not administratively. The City states that where a building is inside a local historic district or is an individually designated historic site, "all requests for total demolition require the review and approval of the Historic Preservation Board at a public hearing, regardless of building classification." Contributing and Non-Contributing buildings are treated the same way on this point.

In the City's own definition, it is "an approval issued by the Historic Preservation Board or by staff of the Planning Department indicating that new construction, alteration or demolition of a historic structure or an improvement within a historic district is [in] accordance with the review criteria." The important part is that the same instrument can come from staff or from the Board, depending on the work.

No. The City is explicit: "if your application includes an understory, any design waiver, or variance, the entire application, including the variance is reviewed by the Design Review Board (or Historic Preservation Board if the home is in a Historic District or individually designated Historic)." The Board of Adjustment hears it only where the property is not in a historic district and the application carries no waivers.

The City publishes this, and we quote it rather than estimate: "Applications are generally scheduled for hearing between three to four months depending in part on the date the application is submitted, as well as the completeness of the application package." It also caps agendas — no more than fifteen applications per meeting — so an incomplete file is not simply late, it is not scheduled.

"Board approvals are valid for 18 months," and "an application can be made to the board to extend the approval for up to one year." That window is for obtaining the full building permit, which is a separate process with its own review cycles.

It is the FEMA substantial improvement test. What is specific to Miami Beach is the lookback: the City tracks costs over a "cumulative substantial improvement" period of one year, dividing the sum of job values for all City permits in the last year by the property value from the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser or a certified depreciated replacement cost appraisal. At or above 50% the work is substantial, and the City states that then "every aspect of the structure must be made compliant." Splitting a project across two permits inside twelve months does not split the test.

A single-family residence does not. The recertification requirement, under Miami-Dade County Code, applies at 30 years and every ten years thereafter, but expressly excludes single-family residences, duplexes and minor buildings. If you own a unit in a larger building, the building is on that cycle even though your home is not.

Through the City's Civic Access portal, which is also where fees are paid, the permit card and approved drawings are downloaded, and inspections are requested. The application is notarised and signed by the owner or a representative and by a registered contractor. The City states that "the plan review for all disciplines is conducted simultaneously", that each cycle takes approximately seven business days, and that on average it takes two to three cycles.

The City prices that outcome into its own guides: for a board application, "if the application is for an after-the-fact approval, the fee is three (3) times the original fee." The Building Department separately publishes a Building Code Violation Amnesty Program. Either way the work has to be evidenced and brought into compliance, which is harder after the fact than before it.

"Inspections are performed Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.", requested and cancelled through Civic Access. On site the inspector expects the approved full-size plans, the permit card, the recorded Notice of Commencement, an address visible from the street, an accessible job site, and an OSHA-approved ladder where one is needed. An inspection failed more than twice carries four times the initial inspection fee.

Both are matters of record and neither should be assumed. The City states it has fourteen local historic districts and classifies buildings within them as Contributing or Non-Contributing — but it also states that "all buildings that are located within any local historic district are reviewed in accordance with the Certificate of Appropriateness Criteria", so the classification does not change the test. We check the record for a specific address before design starts.

A single-family application, described by the City as one "filed by the owner of a single-family home typically … when a homeowner wishes to substantially keep the current home and expand it." A home built before 1966 may satisfy the criteria. It is not historic designation — "Homes that are formally classified as Architecturally Significant are not historically designated" — and new construction need not match the existing style, though taking the associated incentives means the existing style and character must be maintained.

No. Elbaz Construction is a Certified Building Contractor, licence CBC1265280, working across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, and Miami Beach is one of 104 municipalities we file in. Filing widely is what makes a city with a process this precisely published straightforward to work in.

Tab 13 — Why us

One contractor, from the checklist to the certificate

The submittal and the build are the same team

We are a design-build contractor, so the conditions attached to an approval are carried by the people who negotiated them. Nothing is lost in a handover, because there is no handover.

Certified Building Contractor CBC1265280

Licensed, bonded and insured, verifiable with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. A registered contractor has to sign the Miami Beach permit application alongside the owner.

We file in 104 municipalities across three counties

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Every one of them files differently, and Miami Beach files more precisely than most — which is an advantage once you plan to it.

We check the record before we design

District, classification, flood zone, permit history, cumulative job value. Five lookups, done first, because every one of them can change what the project is.

We quote the City, not ourselves

Every timing, threshold and requirement on this page is the City of Miami Beach's own published wording. We do not publish review-time promises or approval odds, because neither is ours to give.

In-house drawings, permitting and construction

Construction documents, permit coordination and the build under one contract, which is the only arrangement where a packaging rule and a construction detail get solved by the same conversation.

Verified Google reviews

What clients say

Published reviews from the company Google Business Profile, quoted as written.

Redid my whole bathroom and kitchen. Great service - Great quality - very quick - very professional !! Highly recommended!

Adir Davidov

Their work was absolutely superb, they did a fantastic job with my house renovation!! Definitely recommend

Sophie Brito

Very professional! From start to end- personal kind treatment, always respectful every espect of the work was clear, and fair. Value for money 10/10. Thank you guys, see you at our next project, hope others will be smart and do the same!

roni yonani

After I've been Looking for a good company to renovate my house , I found those guys! These people are super professional super honest super Fast !! Don't hesitate to Rent their service! They are number one!!

carmit cohen

Needed remodeling of my master bathroom in my house. After calling around and dealing with a bunch of unexperienced companies I found Elbaz construction and gave them a call. Just from the ease of communication and friendly talk I've had with the owner I knew this was going to be the company I was going to hire. They came 2 days later and started remodeling my bathroom and knocked it out in a timely manner. Great service, great communication, and amazing work. Will definelty refer and reuse this company for any future remodeling I might need.

Itzick Manasherov

I highly recommend them for home improvement. They renovated my master bathroom and a few upgrades for other guest bathrooms. They are very professional, courteous and transparent. They are great at communicating and finding ways to streamline the work. Sean has impeccable project management and customer relationship management skills. Very pleased with the work!

Omri B

Read every review on Google

Patio cover with a timber-lined soffit and downlights over new travertine paving, beside a run of sliding doors

TAB 14

Tab 14 — Go deeper

Everything on this page connects to something else we either build or file. These are the pages that go deeper.

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.

TAB 15

Tab 15 — Open a file

Tell us the address.
We will tell you
which file it opens.

Most of what determines a Miami Beach project is knowable before anything is designed — district, classification, flood zone, permit history, cumulative job value. We run those lookups first, and then we can talk about the building.

What happens next

Within one business day

A call back to understand the property and the brief.

The record check

District and classification, flood zone, and the permit history that drives the cumulative 50% test.

The route

Whether this is staff-approvable work, a board application, or a building permit on its own — with the City’s published sequence attached.

A scope and a programme

Written against the actual route, not a generic one.

Useful to have ready

The property address — everything else follows from it
Whether you know the property to be in a historic district, or designated
Any permits pulled on the property in the last twelve months
Your survey, if you have a recent signed and sealed one
Any permit card or prior drawings you hold
What you want the building to become

LicenceCBC1265280

CountiesMiami-Dade · Broward · Palm Beach

Municipalities104

DeliveryDesign-build, in-house

Thanks — that came through.

Your enquiry has been sent to the Elbaz Construction team. A member of the team will call you back within one business day.

Miami Beachpublishes the binder.The first tab iswhether you need one.

Tell us the address, and we will tell you which file it opens

Thanks — that came through.

Not every projectgoes to a board.Miami Beach says so

Four bodies, and the one that will actually read your file

Historic Preservation Board

Design Review Board

Board of Adjustment

Formal Determination of Architectural Significance

Building Department

Openings, elevations, and the things bolted to them

Entry door, arched transom

The City names the documents. All of them.

Pre-application checklist

Land Use Board Application and Letter of Intent

Records of the existing structure

A recent signed and sealed survey

Architectural and landscape drawings

Mailing labels, list of owners, certified letter and map

Step 0 to Step 9, in the City’s own numbering

Traffic study, then pre-application

Fee, first submittal, comments

Final submittal and notice to proceed

The paper package

Hearing, then the Final Order

What the words on a submittal turn into

An elevation, before and after the work

A rear addition, at structure

A cover, complete and in progress

Seven things we do before a Miami Beach drawing is finished

Establish which file this is

Run the 50% test early

Book the pre-application meeting

Assemble the records nobody has

Package to the City rules, not ours

Answer comments as one set

Carry the conditions into construction

The building permit runs on its own clock

Filing

Review

Building and closing out

The 50% rule, as Miami Beach applies it

Elevation certificates

Recertification — and what it does not cover

High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

The decisions that change a Miami Beach project most

A Miami Beach board file, front to back

Pre-application checklist

Land Use Board Application

Letter of Intent

Records of the existing structure

Signed and sealed survey

Architectural drawings

Landscape drawings

Mailing labels and radius map

What actually moves a Miami Beach budget and calendar

What moves the number

Whether a board is involved at all

Flood compliance, triggered by a percentage

The condition of the record

Product approvals on an appearance-reviewed elevation

How many disciplines the scope wakes up

Completeness, which is the City’s own emphasis

What happens after issue

Approval is not permission to build

Eighteen months, then an extension request

Conditions become obligations

Revisions have their own path

Inspection failures compound

Elevations, openings and additions — the subject of the file

One contractor, drawings through certificate

We file in 104 municipalities

Licence CBC1265280

Questions we are actually asked

One contractor, from the checklist to the certificate

The submittal and the build are the same team

Certified Building Contractor CBC1265280

We file in 104 municipalities across three counties

We check the record before we design

We quote the City, not ourselves

Miami Beach
publishes the binder.
The first tab is
whether you need one.

Not every project
goes to a board.
Miami Beach says so

Tell us the address.
We will tell you
which file it opens.