Central Florida · County guide
Permit Expediting in Orange County
Orange County and the City of Orlando run entirely separate permitting departments and entirely separate systems. A project just inside city limits and one just outside share almost nothing except the postcode.
Orange County versus the City of Orlando
Orange County is where the county/city split does the most damage to schedules, because the boundary is irregular and a great deal of what people call Orlando is unincorporated county.
Two departments, two systems
Orange County's Division of Building Safety, using OC Fast Track, has jurisdiction only in unincorporated Orange County. The City of Orlando runs its own Permitting Services Division under Economic Development, with ProjectDox for plan review and a separate permit lookup and payment site. Records do not cross.
A flood-zone inspection with its own number
The Division of Building Safety requires a “135 Inspection”, tied to the FEMA Elevation Certificate, for construction within identified flood plains in unincorporated Orange County. It runs through the standard inspection process but is easy to miss on a schedule.
Two municipalities sit inside the Disney district
Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista are incorporated municipalities within Orange County that lie inside the roughly 25,000-acre Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the state-created successor since February 2023 to the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which provides governmental services within its boundary.
Orlando charges a plan review deposit before you can upload
On the city side, commercial projects must pay a 25% non-refundable plan review deposit before receiving ProjectDox upload access, after an initial compliance check the city says it completes within two business days. That deposit sits in front of the review clock, not inside it.
Split between two water management districts
Most of Orange County, including the Orlando area, is in the St. Johns River Water Management District, while a southern portion falls within the South Florida Water Management District. Which one applies depends on where the site is.
Who reviews your permit in Orange County
Thirteen municipalities. The most consequential distinction is Orlando, which shares nothing operationally with the county.
| Jurisdiction | Notes |
|---|---|
| City of Orlando | Own Permitting Services Division; ProjectDox plan review, Historic Preservation Board, Milestone Inspections |
| Apopka | Own permitting |
| Winter Park | Own permitting |
| Winter Garden | Own permitting |
| Ocoee | Own permitting |
| Maitland | Own permitting, Tyler EnerGov |
| Windermere | Own permitting |
| Belle Isle | Own permitting |
| Oakland | Own permitting |
| Eatonville | Confirm authority |
| Edgewood | Confirm authority |
| Bay Lake & Lake Buena Vista | Inside the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District — confirm the reviewing authority |
Filing with Orange County Division of Building Safety
Unincorporated Orange County submittals go through OC Fast Track.
Every Orange County file begins by settling city or county, because that decides the department, the system, and whether a plan review deposit is due before upload. On anything in a flood plain in the unincorporated county we schedule the 135 inspection into the sequence rather than discovering it at the end.
Contractor registration in Orange County
An Orange County contractor licensing contact exists but the scope of any local registration requirement beyond state licensure is not documented in published county guidance. Orlando lists contractor registration among its permitting services. We confirm per jurisdiction.
Whatever the jurisdiction, the work itself is the same set of services: see the full list of permitting services, or start with permit facilitation and filing if the permit simply needs to get filed and driven to issuance.
Department procedures, fee schedules and review timelines in Orange County change, and municipal requirements change independently of the county's. Everything above reflects published guidance and our own filing experience as of this writing, and should be confirmed with the authority having jurisdiction for your specific project. If you need the current position on a specific question, call us — we will find out rather than guess.
Permitting in Orange County — common questions
Is my Orlando address in the City of Orlando?
Often not. A large amount of unincorporated Orange County carries an Orlando mailing address, and the county and the city run completely separate departments and systems. The parcel decides it, and we confirm before anything is prepared.
What is a 135 inspection in Orange County?
A flood-plain inspection tied to the FEMA Elevation Certificate, required by the Division of Building Safety for construction within identified flood plains in unincorporated Orange County. It runs through the normal inspection process but needs to be in the schedule from the start.
Why can't I upload my Orlando plans yet?
On commercial projects the city requires a 25% non-refundable plan review deposit before granting ProjectDox upload access, after an initial compliance check it says takes two business days. The deposit sits ahead of the review clock.
Who permits construction at Walt Disney World?
Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista sit inside the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the state-created successor to Reedy Creek since February 2023, which provides governmental services within its boundary. We confirm the reviewing authority directly for work in that area.
What we file most in Orange County
Permit Facilitation & Filing
You have a crew scheduled, a client asking for dates, and a permit sitting somewhere in a queue you cannot see. We file it, we track it, and we push i…
Learn moreCertificate of Use (CU)
You signed the lease, ordered the equipment and set an opening date. Then somebody mentioned a Certificate of Use. Here is what it is, who needs one, …
Learn moreSpecial Event Permits
Event permitting is not one permit. It is a stack of approvals from agencies with different lead times, and the date does not move because a form was …
Learn morePlan Review Coordination
A permit in plan review is not one queue. On a commercial project it can be six queues, each with its own reviewer, its own comments and its own idea …
Learn moreCities in Orange County we file in
Each of these runs its own building department with its own requirements. Guidance for Orange County does not carry inside their limits.
Permit Expediting in Orlando
City guide: who reviews it, what the local requirements are, and how to tell whether your parcel is really inside the city.
See the city guideGet a free quote for Orange County
Tell us the address and what is happening. We will tell you which jurisdiction controls it and what it takes.
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