Pinellas accelerates storm recovery: permit-fee waiver, SDE rechecks and $813 million CDBG-DR planning

Pinellas County commissioners voted unanimously on Feb. 25 to continue fee relief for residents rebuilding after the 2024 storms and to move the county closer to accessing federal Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) aid. County officials gave an update showing the number of substantially damaged properties has fallen as reassessments proceed while planners laid out a draft process to spend roughly $813 million in federal CDBG-DR dollars.

County Administrator and recovery staff said the waiver of local building permit fees will remain in place during the recovery period and that the county intends to end its local state of emergency once the waiver and related steps are in place. That waiver was approved by the commission as a resolution on Feb. 25.

The county’s recovery leader, Kevin McCandrew, director of Building and Development Review Services, said program staff have focused on reassessments of initial substantial‑damage (SD) determinations and on processing permits so residents can rebuild. “The percentage of substantially damaged single family homes continues to decline,” he told commissioners, noting 446 dwellings had initial SD findings, 63 of those have been reversed and the current SD share is about 11.5 percent. “Seventy percent of the 446 property owners have filed for a reassessment,” he added.

Why it matters: the reassessment and permitting work determines whether homes can be repaired in place and how they qualify for state or federal recovery programs. The county is also preparing a formal action plan that HUD must accept before it can…