Do I need a permit for pavers, driveway, or hardscape in Cedar Grove?

Local and county notes for Cedar Grove

Impervious-surface and drainage limits can restrict how much of a lot you may pave. Work touching the public right-of-way usually needs a separate right-of-way or driveway-connection permit. Pavers in an easement may require an acknowledgement and can be at risk if a utility needs access. Bay County's own permitting office is the Bay County Building Safety Division, reachable on 850-248-8350 at https://www.baycountyfl.gov/154/Building-Safety, which runs an online permit portal. It issues permits for the unincorporated county. If your city does not run its own building department, this is the office that will handle the job. Bay County has published how it runs the HB 803 $7,500 permit exemption, which matters because the statute leaves the process to each building official. The county handles it as a dedicated PREX-EXEMPT record type with its own Permit Exemption Form, and the Building Official's bulletin confirms the exemption needs a written request rather than simply not applying. The county states every one of these must be true: the work is on a single-family home, the property is not partly or entirely in a flood hazard area or special flood hazard area, the full scope includes no electrical, plumbing, mechanical, gas or structural work, the full scope is under $7,500, and you submit a written request to the Building Official. Miss any one and you need a normal permit. Use current forms. The county states its permit documents are tagged for the Florida Building Code Eighth Edition (2023) and that all previous 6th and 7th Edition forms should be discarded, which is a common cause of a rejected submittal here. Cedar Grove permits are handled by the Cedar Grove Bay County Building Safety Division, reachable on 850-248-8350 at https://www.baycountyfl.gov/154/Building-Safety. Its online permit portal is https://portal.baycountyfl.gov/Account/Logon. Bay County also issues permits for the unincorporated county, and many smaller Florida municipalities contract building services to it rather than running a department of their own, so confirm which office covers your address before you apply. Patios are often exempt while driveway and right-of-way work is not, so confirm which side of that line your project falls on.