GOVERNMENT

Winter Garden reorganizes building department to comply with new Florida permitting law

By: Norine Dworkin | Editor in Chief

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July 2, 2026

A new state law streamlining the approval process for low-cost home improvement projects went into effect July 1. Winter Garden sought to move its Code Enforcement Department from the Winter Garden Police Department to its Building Division in order to comply.

“ I feel like this will improve our response times [and] places everything under one department and a single point of contact,” City Manager Jon Williams explained during last week’s city commission meeting as he requested approval for the departmental reorganization.

The city described the new law — House Bill 803 — as “major changes affecting how the city processes permits, inspections and fees,” according to an infographic provided to the commission and shared with VoxPopuli.

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Projects involving a single trade, like repairing or replacing an air-conditioning unit, have a five-day turnaround for the city to issue a permit under the new HB 803. If the city misses the deadline, the permit is automatically granted.

Seni V. Petro

Under HB 803, single-family home renovation or repair projects under $7,500 will no longer require a permit — although electrical, plumbing, structural, mechanical and gas work or work done on homes in flood areas still will. Projects under $15,000 or those involving a single trade have a new, shorter five-day deadline for the city to issue a permit. For a complete project, the city has 10 days; for homes under 7,500 sq. ft., 30 days; larger structures, 60 days.

Deadlines are firm; if the city misses a deadline, permits are “automatically” granted.

"This reform ... is designed to speed up permitting, simplifying small home projects and providing more flexibility in how inspections are completed," Williams told the commission.

The new law also expands the market for private contractors and inspectors; reduces the city's inspection fees to “actual cost” rather than the valuation of the project; relaxes zoning for manufactured homes; and prevents homeowners associations from requiring permits before reviewing improvement proposals.

The new law adds to the city’s engineering inspectors’ workload as they will be called on to verify that jobs done without city permits still meet city municipal codes.

HB 803 also curbs the city’s permit and inspection revenues just as the city enters budget planning season — this year with the added uncertainty about the outcome of the property tax ballot measure, which, if it passes, will result in the loss of about $13.5 million in general fund revenue and the potential for services, programs and events to be cut.

In a Thursday phone call with VoxPopuli, Williams explained that building revenues have a separate enterprise fund that is unaffected by property taxes, though he acknowledged that the new law is a continuation of the state Legislature's longstanding effort to erode home rule by "preempt[ing] local government and their ability to make decisions ..."

Like setting their own permit and inspection fees.

"There's going to be lost revenue for everything that we previously had permits on for valuation that's now classified for $7,500 and under," Williams said, adding that he won't know the total impact on city revenue until a new rate structure based on a project's actual cost rather than its valuation is in place.

"Until you you can go through the process of knowing what that actual cost basis is going to be to compare it, it's hard to answer," he said. " Our permit fees have not been adjusted really for some time. ... When we look at the actual cost versus what we were charging, it may be actually a little more. I think it's TBD."