SB 540 Florida: Impact Fee Rules and Permit Review Deadlines

Florida SB 540, enacted as Chapter 2023-115 and effective July 1, 2023, is a comprehensive plan and development order bill, not an impact fee or building permit bill. It changed how challenges to local comprehensive plans and development orders work in Florida, most notably by letting the prevailing party recover attorney fees and costs. The impact fee caps and permit review deadlines that get discussed alongside SB 540 come from different statutes, Section 163.31801 and Section 553.792, which were amended through other 2023 legislation on the same effective date.¹

What SB 540 Changed

SB 540 amended four statutes that govern local government comprehensive plans and development orders. Three changes matter most.

First, the prevailing party in an administrative challenge to a comprehensive plan or plan amendment can now recover attorney fees and costs, including appellate fees.² Before the change, each side generally paid its own way. A developer or citizen who wins now has a path to fee recovery, and so does a local government that successfully defends its plan.

Second, the bill narrowed the grounds for challenging a local government decision to grant or deny a development order. Under SB 540, a challenge is available only when the decision would materially alter the use, density, or intensity of the property in a way that conflicts with the comprehensive plan. The pre-SB 540 grounds were broader.²

Third, land development regulations that address characteristics other than use, density, or intensity do not apply to Florida College System institutions.¹

All of these provisions took effect July 1, 2023.

Why SB 540 Gets Confused With Impact Fee and Permit Reform

Several 2023 Florida bills touching development law took effect on the same July 1 date, and SB 540 traveled through the Legislature at the same time. But SB 540 itself did not touch the Florida Impact Fee Act or the building permit review statute. If you are trying to figure out what a local government can charge in impact fees, or how long it has to act on your permit, the answers are in Section 163.31801 and Section 553.792. Those are covered below because searchers looking for “SB 540” often want them; they are not part of the bill.

Impact Fee Rules Under Section 163.31801

The Florida Impact Fee Act caps how quickly local governments, school districts, and special districts can raise impact fees, and sets rules for credits and refunds.³

Caps and Phase-In

No single increase may exceed 50 percent of the current rate.
Increases of 25 percent or less must be phased in over two equal annual increments from the adoption date.
Increases above 25 percent and up to 50 percent must be phased in over four equal annual installments.
An impact fee cannot be increased more than once every four years.
An increase cannot be applied retroactively to a prior or current fiscal year.

Study and Notice

A new or increased impact fee must be based on a study using the most recent and localized data available, updated within four years of the current fee schedule. If the local government raises the fee, it must adopt the study within 12 months of starting it. The government must also give at least 90 days’ notice before a new or increased fee takes effect. That waiting period does not apply if the fee is being decreased, suspended, or eliminated. Applications pending on the effective date of an increase are shielded from the higher rate unless the overall mitigation cost to the applicant actually drops.³

Extraordinary Circumstances Exception

A local government can exceed the phase-in caps, the 50 percent ceiling, or the four-year interval only by meeting several conditions. It must complete a demonstrated-need study within the 12 months before adoption showing extraordinary circumstances, hold at least two publicly noticed workshops focused on those circumstances, and adopt the increase by unanimous vote of the governing body. Even then, the increase must still be implemented in two to four equal annual installments.³

Two limits on the exception matter. A jurisdiction that has not raised its impact fees within the past five years cannot use the extraordinary circumstances bypass at all. And the Florida Attorney General has said routine population growth does not qualify as extraordinary, because the statute treats steady growth as the normal condition the phase-in schedule is designed to handle.⁴

Credits, Transfers, and Refunds

When a developer voluntarily builds infrastructure or dedicates land that an impact fee was meant to fund, the local government must apply a dollar-for-dollar credit at fair market value against the fee for that category of public facilities. The credit covers monetary contributions, land dedication, design, and construction. No credit applies if the local government does not charge an impact fee for that type of infrastructure.³

Credits are assignable and transferable once established. A developer can move them among projects within the same impact fee zone or district, or into an adjoining zone within the same local government jurisdiction, as long as the receiving project benefits from the improvement that generated the credits. This transferability applies to all credits regardless of when they were established.³

If the development is never built, or if the fee is not spent or committed within six years, the local government must refund the impact fee to the current property owner.

Building Permit Review Deadlines Under Section 553.792

Section 553.792 sets how long a Florida local government has to review a building permit application once the submission is complete. Deadlines run in business days. An applicant can waive them in writing, but the local government cannot require a waiver as a condition of reviewing the application.⁵

Deadlines by Project Type

30 business days for residential permits on structures under 7,500 square feet, including single-family homes, accessory structures, and related trade permits (electrical, plumbing, mechanical, roofing, and similar work).
60 business days for residential structures of 7,500 square feet or more; nonresidential buildings under 25,000 square feet; multifamily projects of 50 units or fewer; site-plan approvals and subdivision plats that do not require a public hearing; and lot grading or site alteration.
12 business days for site-specific permits using a master building permit.
10 business days for single-family homes applied for by a licensed contractor for a property owner in a Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program.

⁵

Completeness, Deficiencies, and Revisions

Within five business days of receiving an application, the local government must send written notice stating what information, if any, is needed to consider the application complete. If it misses that five-day window without sending notice, the application is deemed complete and accepted.

If the local government does identify problems within the review period, it must send written notice explaining specifically why the application does not satisfy the Florida Building Code or local ordinances. The applicant then has 10 business days to submit corrections. After receiving the revisions, the local government has another 10 business days to approve or deny the permit, unless the applicant agrees in writing to more time.⁵

Penalty for Missed Deadlines

When a local government misses a review deadline, the building permit fee drops by 10 percent for each business day the decision is late, calculated against the original fee. If it misses the 10-day deadline after receiving revised materials, the reduction is 20 percent per business day. The reductions do not apply if the applicant agreed to an extension, caused the delay, or a force majeure event is responsible.⁵

If You Are Challenging a Plan or Development Order

Two features of SB 540 change how a challenge looks in practice. The prevailing-party fee provision means both sides carry real financial exposure through appeal, so the decision to file, defend, or settle now has to account for the other side’s legal costs. And because a development order decision can be challenged only when it would materially alter the property’s use, density, or intensity in conflict with the comprehensive plan, the pleadings must fit that narrower frame from the outset. Objections based on other characteristics of the land use regulation no longer support a challenge to the development order itself.

1
Florida Senate. Senate Bill 540 (2023)
2
Florida Senate. CS/CS/SB 540 – Local Government Comprehensive Plans
3
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 163.31801 – Impact Fees; Short Title; Intent
4
My Florida Legal. AGO 2026-01 – Impact Fees Increase
5
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 553.792 – Building Permit Application to Local Government