County details substantial‑damage process as permitting continues; reassessment path added for homeowners

Pinellas County building staff gave a detailed briefing on Jan. 14 about how the county is carrying out substantial‑damage (SD) determinations, the FEMA estimator tool and a new reassessment pathway for homeowners and contractors.

Kevin McCandrew, director of Building and Development Review Services (BDRS), said the county ran two concurrent recovery paths after the storms: issuing building permits for repairs while performing FEMA estimator‑tool inspections to identify properties needing SD determinations. He said more than 1,900 building permits for storm repair had been issued through BDRS and the county continued “to run concurrent paths.”

“Building permits would not be able to be issued without compliance with substantial improvement, substantial damage considerations,” McCandrew said, explaining that compliance stems from the Florida Building Code and FEMA rules incorporated into county processes.

McCandrew described operational challenges with the FEMA estimator tool — data‑entry and functionality issues that required extra quality control — but said county staff set a policy of not issuing SD letters unless they had high confidence in the output. He said the county’s proactive inspections focused on two critical pieces of data for each structure: the high‑water line and the finished‑floor elevation, which the estimator tool uses to compute damage percentages.

Reassessment process and metrics: McCandrew outlined a reassessment (administrative appeal) option for homeowners who disagree with an initial SD determination. He said the county had received about 130 reassessment requests for unincorporated areas; of those, 10 had been reversed and roughly 120 were in various stages of review. He added that the initial reassessment batch often lacked required documentation and county staff have added front‑end support — in‑person help at the permit support hub, an online submission path and a dedicated email/phone contact — to improve completeness and speed review.

Property appraiser and private appraisals: The property appraiser’s office (represented by Mike Twitty) helped calibrate damage percentages and provided building valuations used to judge whether repair cost estimates would exceed the statutory threshold. McCandrew said the county can accept either the property appraiser’s FEMA WLM letter or a private actual‑cash‑value (ACV) appraisal; county staff and the property appraiser’s office are working to speed communication between private appraisers and state review contractors to resolve rejected ACV submissions.

Permitting and multifamily buildings: McCandrew told the board the county had flagged approximately 5,000 structures for the SD assessment process after a FEMA‑related preliminary damage assessment; the vast majority — roughly 80 percent — were not deemed substantially damaged and were cleared for permits. He emphasized a milestone: multistory condominium buildings have been “green‑lighted” to proceed with permitting because, after a county valuation review, staff determined most multistory buildings would not be substantially damaged. The county published guidance and worked with condominium associations to allocate building repair costs to individual units where required.

Customer support: McCandrew said the county’s SD support line received more than 3,000 calls between November and January, averaging about 30 minutes per call, and staff had doubled permit issuance compared with a pre‑storm baseline in the recovery period.

Ending: McCandrew told commissioners the county’s focus is on completing the reassessment backlog, providing direct help to homeowners and contractors preparing applications, and maintaining quality control so that SD letters issued are accurate and withstand later audit.