On the coast, the permit is the schedule. A quick note from us. Between Land Perc and Blue Arc, we sit on the one part of your job that can quietly shape a whole construction season: the permit.

Our crew, mid-channel. Elevations don’t shoot themselves.

So we’re starting this — a short, useful note once a month on what’s moving permits faster, what to line up early, and the people on our side of the table who get your builds cleared to break ground.

It’s written for you, the builder — practical, quick to read, and built around the one thing we both care about: keeping your schedule on track.

— Kelly & Alexandra Hill

Septic seaward of the CCCL, permitted before the build window closed

Project: Custom residence  ·  Captiva, FL  ·  Septic (OSTDS) sited seaward of the 1991 Coastal Construction Control Line.

A large single-family residence needed its septic tank and drainfield placed seaward of the 1991 Coastal Construction Control Line. Handled wrong, that placement turns into a months-long agency back-and-forth. And the clock made it worse: marine turtle nesting season runs May 1 through October 31. Slip past the spring window and ground work collides with nesting restrictions — the build stalls, maybe until next season.

Blue Arc checked the work against the CCCL exemption criteria and confirmed it qualified as a minor utility installation with no adverse effect on the coastal system. That call is the whole job: get the classification right up front and the permit moves; get it wrong and you file for a full coastal permit you never needed. We built the package complete on the first pass, filed within one week of coming onto the project, and carried it through FDEP with no second round of requests.

FDEP issued the exemption inside the pre-nesting window. The builder mobilized on schedule. No second submittal. No shutdown. No lost season.

Three ways to keep your next permit on schedule

What we’re seeing move cleanly through review this quarter — and how to set yours up the same way.

Bottom line: not sure which basin your next community sits in, or whether your septic spec matches the soil? That’s a 20-minute call, not a surprise on the critical path. Reply to this email and we’ll pull the county-specific risks for your pipeline.