Once your city or county receives our swimming pool permit application, the submitted plans and documents are routed through a formal plan review process. This review typically involves multiple technical disciplines — including structural, plumbing, and electrical — and may take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending largely on the jurisdiction. This article explains how the plan review process works in South Florida and highlights when your participation may be needed.
No Need to Respond to or Forward Your City’s E-mails
Most jurisdictions will send permit-related email notifications to both the pool contractor (AQUAVIX) and the homeowner. There’s no need for you to reply to these emails or forward them to us — we receive the same notifications, along with additional internal updates that homeowners don’t see. Rest assured, we monitor them closely and respond promptly as needed.
If a notification involves a document required for the permit review — such as an elevation certificate, geotechnical report, or tree mitigation plan — we’ll reach out to you directly to explain what’s needed and advise you on the best course of action. We’ll also notify you when there are open permit fees to be paid online.
Administrative Check
Before your permit application moves on to technical review, the city or county will first perform an administrative check to confirm that all required documents have been submitted correctly. This step varies by jurisdiction and may include specific rules about how files are named, grouped, and uploaded. Some municipalities — for example, the City of Miami Beach — are especially difficult, with unnecessarily complicated file-naming and grouping rules that its own employees don’t seem to understand or be able to explain — because they just don’t make sense. Bureaucracy at its worse — but that’s the nature of this process, unfortunately.
Because these rules can change without notice, even small deviations from current requirements may result in a rejection or request for correction. If that happens, both AQUAVIX and the homeowner typically receive a notification. As explained earlier, there’s no need for you to reply or forward these emails — we monitor all submissions and will promptly make any necessary adjustments to resubmit the application.
Some jurisdictions require an initial permit fee to be paid before the application is accepted for processing. Others may wait until after the administrative review to issue a payment request. Some — for example, the City of Hollywood — won’t require a payment until the plans are approved. Whichever the case, we’ll let you know when a payment is required. Permit fees are contractually the responsibility of the homeowner, and we’ll guide you through how and when to pay them online.
Once the application passes this initial check and any required fees have been paid, it advances to the plan review phase, where the technical evaluation begins.
Plan Review Process
The plan review process for new swimming pool construction in South Florida typically involves multiple technical disciplines, including:
- Zoning / Planning
- Engineering / Utilities / Drainage
- Structural
- Plumbing
- Electrical
- Mechanical
- Landscaping
In major cities like Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Hollywood, and Pompano Beach, these reviews are usually conducted in parallel, allowing different departments to assess the plans simultaneously. In smaller jurisdictions — such as Dania Beach and Lighthouse Point — the review is often sequential, with printed plans still required in some cases (though we expect this to change soon).
While exact timelines can vary, we typically advise clients to plan for at least 6 weeks from initial submittal to final approval.
As your city reviews the submitted plans and documents, progress is typically tracked through an online portal, which indicates which items have been reviewed and whether they’ve been approved or rejected.
In most cases, at least one or two reviewers will request adjustments, clarifications, or corrections. These comments are posted online, and we respond promptly upon notification.
If the reviewers request additional documents or explanations — such as revised engineering details or supplementary forms — this will be clearly indicated in their comments.
Rejections include a summary of the required corrections. The review process occurs in rounds or cycles: once all comments are addressed, we submit a revised set of documents for a new review cycle. After all documents have been approved, the permit is marked ready for issuance and the final permit fee becomes due. Once the homeowner pays the fee, the permit is officially issued, and we’re cleared to begin construction.
Each review cycle may take anywhere from one to four weeks, depending on the jurisdiction’s workload. Given the complexity of the applicable building codes and the custom nature of each pool project, it is rare for plans to be approved in a single cycle. Most projects require two to three cycles. While exact timelines can vary, we typically advise clients to plan for at least 6 weeks from initial submittal to final approval.