General Administrative Order 26-01 Amendment to Phase One Plans Submis

Passed June 5, 2026. Download Administrative Order 26-01(PDF, 348KB)

WHEREAS, the Unsafe Structure Panel ("Panel"), having been apprised by its Counsel and Counsel for the City of Miami, Florida ("City") of a recent changes in the City's permitting review and issuance process find it necessary to update its past administrative orders; and

WHEREAS, the Panel issue AO 23-01 October 6, 2023, in which it set forth the current state of the Unsafe Structure Panel Orders ("Panel Orders"); and

WHEREAS, AO 23-01 as well as the issued case Panel Orders provide, as necessary, a Phase One where violating property owners are required to email their plans submissions to the Unsafe Structure staff for review and approval for basic scope of work prior to the submission's hold being removed from the property folio in the City's iBuild system; and

WHEREAS, this initial internal Unsafe review via email is no longer necessary; and

WHEREAS, if the violating property owner does not begin the permitting process as required under the City Code with the initial Notice of Violation, the property is still tagged as having an open Unsafe Structure case violation to be addressed; and

WHEREAS, in order to speed up the process and provide clear timelines, proof of processing and filing, the case will start in the iBuild system and then move into the ProjectDox system for plans upload, full plans review, and approval.

WHEREAS, the new proposed process will work as follows:

A. Phase One:

1. Intake of all information via iBuild and subsequent plans and documents submission via ProjectDox by the applicant, including payment of upfront fee to obtain process number and be assigned a Prescreen Review Coordinator;

2. Prescreen Review Coordinator, after payment of fee, reviews all uploads and documents to confirm correctness and assigns required review disciplines (this is where Unsafe Structure Division is flagged because both systems are configured to know property addresses with open violation cases);

3. Once the above has been accomplished, the plans will go into their first review cycle. Unsafe Structure will already be flagged and the plans review will not be able to proceed past their first review cycle without approval from Unsafe Structure that the submission meets the basic scope required to address pending violations.

4. If the plans fail to meet what is required, Unsafe Structure has the ability to place a hold on the process and no other discipline review will be able to further proceed until the issue is resolved.

5. When Unsafe Structure approves the plans for meeting the basic scope required for compliance, all other disciplines will be able to continue their review cycles. This completes Phase One.

B. Phase Two:

1. Remainder of required disciplines continue concurrent reviews of plans and corrections and updates are completed to meet City, Building and any other Code requirements (this can take many cycles to complete);

2. Remaining reviews are completed and approved, permit is approved, full permit fee paid and permit issued. This completes Phase Two.

C. Phase Three:

1. Construction work begins and relevant discipline inspections continue until each receives final approval of completion;

2. Unsafe Division has final inspection review to ensure continued compliance with plans as approved and work done at the site for pending violation. Any further necessary corrections can be addressed at this time;

3. Final Unsafe Division approval, permit finalized, paid and Unsafe Structure case fees paid in full. This completes Phase Three.

WHEREAS, the only change to the above Phases from what currently exists is that instead of requiring owners to go through a several week email process before they start the many weeks Prescreening process, is they can go directly into Intake and Prescreen with the Unsafe Structures review built in to ensure plans uploaded meet the scope of required work;

WHEREAS, this Unsafe Structure review requirement is already available in the iBuild and ProjectDox systems and used in certain Planning Department and/or Zoning Department reviews so it will only take 30 to 60 days to add this option for unsafe violations;

WHEREAS, this proposed review process negates the need for an initial review process by Unsafe Structure staff via email prior to uploading plans into ProjectDox and the Unsafe Division will be able to review plans at inception to ensure compliance with basic scope of work; and

WHEREAS, any applicant has the ability to seek the advice of the Unsafe Division staff prior to the start of the application process to ensure they are on the correct path if they so choose;

WHEREAS, this change will also allow for a faster review and turnaround process for property owners with open violations and it will all be preserved with notes and comments in the City archives and easily obtainable by both City staff and the applicant and their professionals; and 

WHEREAS, in so far as this Administrative Order will remove the need to have initial plans sent via email to the Unsafe Structure staff, all other requirements remain the same; and

WHEREAS, this change will also change the three phases somewhat and as such, references in prior AO 23-1, 23-2 and 25-1 shall be considered amended based upon the below finding; and

WHEREAS, all prior orders issued by the Panel which require submission via email for Phase One may be adjusted to follow the new procedures outlined below with direct uploads into the main review process for all plans; and

WHEREAS, the Panel finds it is the best interest of both the City and violating property owners to have a more streamlined process for plans submissions and process and as such the Panel orders that all its future orders issued after a finding of violation, a request for extension ot time or a breach hearing, shall provide for Phase One, Two and Three as listed above. 

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