FDEP and Environmental Resource Permit Coordination

Which agency actually has your project

Environmental permitting in Florida is divided between the Department of Environmental Protection and the five water management districts, with jurisdiction split by project type and geography. On the Suncoast that generally means the Southwest Florida Water Management District; elsewhere it may be the South Florida, St. Johns River, Suwannee River or Northwest Florida district. Some project types stay with FDEP regardless.

On top of that, work in, on or over sovereign submerged lands requires a separate authorization — a consent of use, lease or easement — and coastal work seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line requires its own approval. And all of that sits alongside, not instead of, your county or city building permit.

Getting the agency wrong at the start does not just delay the project; it can mean preparing the wrong application entirely.

Common project types

• Docks, boat lifts, boathouses and mooring structures
• Seawalls, revetments, riprap and shoreline stabilization
• Dredging and fill
• Stormwater management systems for new development and redevelopment
• Wetland impacts and mitigation
• Coastal construction seaward of the CCCL
• Submerged lands consent, lease or easement
• Environmental Resource Permit exemptions and general permits, where the project qualifies

Exemptions and general permits are worth checking first

Not every project needs a full individual Environmental Resource Permit. Florida's rules provide exemptions and noticed general permits for a range of smaller and lower-impact activities, including certain private residential docks within defined size limits. Qualifying can be the difference between a several-month individual permit and a comparatively quick noticed process.

The first thing worth doing on any waterfront project is establishing honestly which category it falls into — because designing a dock two feet larger than the exemption threshold can add months to the schedule for no functional benefit.

How we work these files

1. Determine jurisdiction and permit category, including whether an exemption or general permit applies.
2. Identify every parallel approval — submerged lands, CCCL, local building permit, HOA or deed restriction, and where applicable federal review.
3. Coordinate with your engineer, surveyor or environmental consultant on the application package. We do not prepare engineering or environmental assessments; we make sure the right people are producing the right documents in the right order.
4. File and track through agency review, and manage requests for additional information — which are routine and which stop the clock until answered.
5. Sequence the local building permit so it is not sitting idle waiting on state approval, or worse, filed and expiring while state review continues.