Shining light on the good, bad and ugly of bureaucracy in Panama City

Governor DeSantis should sign HB 803 – and we believe he will 

By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida 

Florida does not need another speech about housing affordability. It needs fewer obstacles to building housing. 

That is what HB 803 addresses. 

The bill, now awaiting the governor’s signature, goes directly at the layer of local permitting that quietly drives up costs — duplicative reviews, inflated fees, shifting requirements, and timelines that stretch for reasons that have little to do with safety or code compliance. 

This is not abstract. Red Tape Florida has documented it. 

In Gulf County, the county imposed a $500 “planning review fee” on applicants who used a private provider — the very tool state law created to speed up permitting. Builders were effectively told: use the private-sector fast lane and pay a toll for the privilege. In some cases, they were also routed through additional internal steps before permits could move forward. 

HB 803 shuts that down. 

The bill requires local governments to reduce permit fees when private providers are used — at least 25 percent in some cases, and at least 50 percent when private providers handle both plan review and inspections. It also prohibits additional administrative or inspection fees tied to the use of a private provider. 

That is a straightforward fix. If government is doing less work, it should not charge the same — and it certainly should not charge more. 

Alachua County offers another example of how the system has drifted. 

RTF reported that the county created a “Private Provider Inspection Confirmation” process that does not exist in state law. Contractors described county inspectors redoing inspections already completed by private providers, issuing correction notices without coordinating with them, and requiring additional approvals before work could proceed. 

The county also required scheduling through a portal that limited flexibility, rejected documentation for technical reasons, and added layers of process that had the effect of slowing projects even after private-provider approval. 

That is not oversight. That is duplication. 

HB 803 addresses that by limiting how far local governments can go once a qualified private provider is engaged. It restricts local review largely to true local issues — site conditions, floodplain management, administrative completeness — rather than allowing a second round of building-code review under a different name. 

It also requires local governments to maintain registration systems for private providers and bars them from charging administrative fees just to participate in the process. 

The point is simple: if the state authorizes private providers, local governments cannot quietly recreate the same process and call it something else. 

Tallahassee provides a third, more familiar example. 

RTF reported on a property owner attempting to renovate a small maintenance shed at an apartment complex. What should have been routine turned into a multi-year process involving dozens of plan-review comments, additional surveys, stormwater requirements, tree-mitigation calculations despite no tree removal, structural questions about decades-old footers, and even a dispute over a roof overhang extending a few inches beyond a setback line. 

At a certain point, it became cheaper and faster to demolish the structure than to satisfy the process. 

That is the system Florida says it wants to fix. 

HB 803 does not solve every one of those problems, but it targets the mechanics behind them. 

It requires more uniform building permit applications statewide, reducing the need to relearn the process from one jurisdiction to another. It creates a five-business-day decision window for certain smaller residential permits once an application is complete. It prevents inspection fees from being based on total project cost rather than the actual cost of the inspection. 

And it addresses a quieter constraint on supply by requiring that offsite-constructed housing — including modular and manufactured homes — be treated the same as site-built homes. Local governments can no longer impose more restrictive rules simply because of how a home is constructed. 

Taken together, these changes do something important: they reduce uncertainty. 

And uncertainty is expensive. 

Every additional review, every extra requirement, every week a project sits waiting for a decision adds cost — financing, carrying, and risk. Those costs do not disappear. They are built into the final price of housing. 

If Florida is serious about affordability, it cannot ignore that reality. 

HB 803 does not rely on subsidies or new programs. It removes friction. It aligns fees with actual work. It reinforces the role of private providers. And it sets clearer expectations for how permitting should function. 

It also reflects a consistent direction in state policy. Florida has spent the past several years pushing to reduce barriers to development and increase predictability. This bill fits squarely within that approach. 

The Legislature’s support reflects that. HB 803 passed with overwhelming, bipartisan margins. 

There is nothing controversial about requiring government fees to match government work. 

There is nothing controversial about preventing duplicate inspections. 

There is nothing controversial about treating different types of housing fairly. 

What is controversial is the status quo — where local processes add cost without adding value, and where builders and property owners face a system that too often feels designed to slow them down rather than help them move forward. 

Governor DeSantis has made cutting red tape a central theme of his administration. HB 803 is exactly that. 

It reduces unnecessary costs. It limits duplication. It makes it easier to build. 

Florida does not need another conversation about housing. 

It needs fewer barriers to building it. 

This bill removes some of them. 

It should be signed and we believe it will be. 

April 28, 2026
By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida