FIELD DATA City of Miami · 2023–2025

What Miami plan reviewers actually send back.

We read 3,608 reviewer comments on 310 randomly sampled residential permits. Most of what holds a package up isn't engineering. It's paperwork that can be caught before you upload.

310residential permits, picked at random
3,608reviewer comments read and sorted
39%sent back for a second review round
36median days from submittal to approval

Fewer than 1 in 10 comments are about the design.

We sorted every comment that asked for a change. The large majority ask for something to be shown, attached, signed or renamed. Those are the comments a pre-check can head off.

  • Information missing from the drawings47.4%
  • Missing or wrong documents and files26.3%
  • Signatures, seals, fees and process16.6%
  • A real design or code problem5.5%
  • Numbers that disagree between documents4.2%
Share of 2,679 actionable comments (boilerplate notices excluded). On a hand-labelled random sample, design/code problems were 8% of actionable comments.

Every round trip costs weeks.

A roof permit clears in about two weeks. New homes and additions average more than three review rounds and take five to six months to reach approval.

Permit typeMedian days to approvalAvg. rounds2+ rounds
Roofing92 permits · 91 approved so far 15 days 1.2 avg. rounds 15% needed 2+
Remodel / repair94 permits · 70 approved so far 59 days 1.8 avg. rounds 40% needed 2+
Addition19 permits · 10 approved so far 162 days 3.3 avg. rounds 62% needed 2+
New construction36 permits · 24 approved so far 187 days 3.3 avg. rounds 70% needed 2+
Calendar days from the portal's initial submission date to initial approval, approved permits only (239 of 310). Avg. rounds and 2+ rounds count every permit of that type.

The most common document problems, and what we check.

Share of the 310 permits where a reviewer raised each problem at least once. We mark what Counterclear catches today, including what it doesn't. One permit can have several problems.

File named wrongEvery filename checked against the city's published naming standard
27%84 permits
Checked
Uploaded to the wrong folderNot checked: folders live in the city portal
23%71 permits
Not checked
Survey missing, outdated or unsignedFlagged when missing; date checked where the checklist sets an age limit
21%65 permits
Partly
Permit application incomplete or wrongSquare footage, job value and folio compared against the drawings
14%44 permits
Partly
Duplicate or superseded filesDuplicate filenames flagged
14%43 permits
Partly
NOA / product approval problemsEach cited NOA looked up live in Miami-Dade Product Control
10%30 permits
Checked
Arborist report or tree photosRequired by scope; tree totals compared with the disposition plan
5%15 permits
Checked
Heat-load calculations (Manual J)Required for new homes and additions; flagged when new A/C is drawn
4%13 permits
Checked

What reviewers ask to see on the drawings.

Counterclear reads every sheet and raises these as "worth a second look" when the drawings don't seem to show them. Each note tells you how often Miami reviewers asked for it.

40Visibility trianglesof 310 permits
35Light-colored roof noteof 310 permits
33Tree protection during demolitionof 310 permits
32Lot layersof 310 permits
29Flood elevations with datumof 310 permits
26Scope of workof 310 permits
24Tree disposition legendof 310 permits
21Codes in effectof 310 permits
21Pervious / impervious diagramof 310 permits
17Roof plan detailsof 310 permits
17Swale restoration noteof 310 permits
13Zoning data tableof 310 permits

Beyond Miami.

The same checks run against what each jurisdiction publishes. Every requirement links back to its source, and a city that hasn't published a rule doesn't get one invented for it.

22
South Florida jurisdictions covered
819
published checklist items mapped
Live
Each cited NOA is checked against Miami-Dade Product Control for expired or superseded approvals. Only the NOA number leaves our server.

How we got these numbers

  • Process numbers were drawn at random from the City of Miami's 2023–2025 sequences. We kept residential ePlan permits with reviewer comments: 310 permits, 3,608 comments.
  • Comments were sorted by keyword rules, then checked against a hand-labelled random sample. The rules agreed with the hand labels 67% of the time on comments they weren't tuned on, so treat shares as estimates.
  • A comment that raises several topics is counted once, under its first match, so some topics are undercounted.
  • This is one city's data. Other jurisdictions' requirements come from their own published checklists, not from this sample.

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