Demolition permits in the Florida Keys

Key West, Marathon, Islamorada and Key Colony Beach each have their own building department and issue their own permits. Parcels outside those cities, in places such as Key Largo, Tavernier, Big Pine Key and Cudjoe Key, go through the Monroe County Building Department. Cudjoe Key, for example, does not issue permits of its own; the county does.

The county works from permitting offices in Key Largo, Marathon, Big Pine Key, Stock Island and Ocean Reef, and publishes its hours as 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at each, with appointments encouraged. Applicants must register for the county's online permitting system before they can apply. Confirm the office and the hours for your parcel before you drive anywhere on US 1.

Key West publishes a one-page checklist for a full building demolition. The application needs the property address, the owner, contractor and qualifier details, proof of ownership from the Monroe County Property Appraiser or a deed, the job valuation, and a written scope. A site plan marking the building and photographs of it go with the application, plus HOA approval where one applies, with Key West Golf Course and Truman Annex named as examples.

The notes on that checklist matter more than the list. A demolition permit must be accompanied by a plumbing permit to cap the water connections. Electric service must be disconnected before the structure comes down. A recorded Notice of Commencement is required for projects valued at 5,000 dollars or more before the first inspection can be scheduled. Treat these as a model of what other Keys offices commonly ask, not as their rules.

A building inside Key West's historic district needs approval from the Historic Architectural Review Commission, known as HARC, before it can be demolished. The approval document is a Certificate of Appropriateness. For a contributing or historic building, the city's demolition appendix sets a high test: the commission looks at whether the building's condition is irrevocably compromised by extreme deterioration, or whether it lacks the distinctive characteristics and historic value the standards list.

The city has said that since March 10, 2025 the Certificate of Appropriateness is obtained separately from the building permit, and a city page also says the two filings are being combined into one application. The sources disagree on which applies today, so ask the city before you file.

Marathon takes permits through an online portal and posts building scheduling hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday. Its forms include an asbestos affidavit, which the city's permit materials say must be signed and notarized for renovation or demolition work, and an abandonment affidavit. Where asbestos is present, the city's notice sends the owner or contractor to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Islamorada accepts permit applications only through its CityView portal, after you register and activate an account. For improvements of 5,000 dollars or more it requires a recorded Notice of Commencement before the first inspection, and staff need one to two business days to process it. Construction there is allowed from 7:30 a.m. to sundown, every day.

Before a regulated demolition or renovation, the federal NESHAP rule (40 CFR Part 61, Subpart M) calls for a thorough asbestos inspection. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says a written notice must reach its district or local program office at least ten working days ahead of the start.

A building permit does not replace that notice. The two go to different offices and neither stands in for the other. Under the rule, a lone home with four or fewer dwelling units is generally exempt, though the permit office can still ask for a statement. Any asbestos that turns up is taken out by a licensed abatement firm, never by the people running the machines. Before filing, confirm the present rule and which DEP office serves Monroe County.

Offices commonly hold back a full demolition permit until the services are shut off and proof is in the file. That means a plumbing permit for the water cap, an electric disconnect, and a separate permit when a septic tank is closed. Marathon's commercial checklist asks for proof of septic abandonment and of a hookup to city wastewater, a hint that plenty of Keys lots still rely on a tank.

The usual snag is a single late letter that freezes an otherwise finished file. The utilities and licensed trades carry out the disconnects, and we order each letter, follow it up, and file once the set is whole.

Anyone who digs in Florida must first notify Sunshine 811, the state's one-call center, and demolition counts as digging for that purpose. Locates are requested at least two full business days ahead, leaving out the day of the call, weekends and holidays. Marks from an earlier job do not carry over: each new job needs its own ticket.

Flood zone decides a great deal here. The county's building page lists A and V zones among the factors that control which small projects qualify for an exemption, and it carries flood maps, an appeal process and flood insurance information. If a building in a flood zone is damaged and the cost to repair it reaches 50 percent of its pre-damage value, it is substantially damaged and must be brought up to current flood rules, elevated, moved or demolished.

Monroe County has said it values the structure at the property appraiser's figure plus 20 percent, with land excluded. That detail came from older reporting, so ask your floodplain administrator whether it still holds. Separately, new home building in the Keys is limited by a state allocation system. Before demolishing a house, confirm with the planning office what may be built back on the lot.

Big Pine Key and No Name Key hold the endangered Key deer. For years a federal habitat conservation plan and incidental take permit governed development there. Reporting says that permit was set to end on June 30, 2026, with endangered-species review moving to the county's Permit Referral Process, and that the cumulative habitat cap and the three-to-one mitigation requirement stay in effect. Check the current status with the county planning department before you plan any work on those two keys.

Monroe County has no landfill. The county runs transfer stations at Cudjoe Key and Long Key and sends its waste to the mainland, to landfills it describes as roughly 150 to 200 miles away. Private franchise haulers serve different stretches of the chain, so which hauler applies depends on where the lot is. We price the haul as its own line and confirm the disposal route before the first load.

Under Florida Statute 489.103(7), an owner may serve as contractor on a one- or two-family home they will use themselves, or on their own commercial building when the cost is 75,000 dollars or less. Whatever licensed contractors do not handle, the owner supervises in person. In Key West a homeowner-builder files a signed, notarized disclosure form with the application, and Marathon makes owner-builders apply at the counter.

If the property is sold or leased within a year of completion, the law presumes the work was done for that purpose, and the exemption no longer applies. Treat this as general information and check with your building office first.