Leigh and David Ellen's memories of their lengthy struggle Cape Coral’s Permitting Services Division remain vivid, and they want other residents to understand their frustration over what they went through.
The Ellen's moved to Cape Coral to take care of their parents seven years ago and applied for a building permit to connect a generator to their home ahead of hurricane season.
But as years passed and the approval for the permit was nowhere to be found, they grew increasingly frustrated.
Then came Hurricane Ian and the very experience the Ellens had hoped to be prepared for when they bought the generator.
The only catch — they still hadn’t received approval for the building permit they submitted before the storm.
“We had a generator in the side yard and a full tank of propane, but I couldn’t get a permit to get it hooked up for five years. The permitting down here is crazy."David Ellen, Cape Coral resident
Sitting defeated in the dark after the raging winds and floodwaters subsided, they had no choice but to evacuate to one of their parents’ home in West Palm Beach for two weeks, even though a generator sat primed and ready for them to use.
“We had a generator in the side yard and a full tank of propane, but I couldn’t get a permit to get it hooked up for five years. The permitting down here is crazy,” David Ellen said.
While the instance with David and Leigh Ellen dates back more than three years, many residents of Cape Coral say they are still experiencing difficulties while applying for building permits, citing long wait times for approval and limited access to customer service. They say they want to see changes to a more “streamlined” process, one that caters to both safety requirements and residents’ needs.
The Ellens say other residents can avoid similar situations if the building permitting process becomes more efficient.
Paula Work, a resident of Cape Coral for seven months of the year, says she encountered a similar hurdle like the Ellens faced. The only difference is Work’s experience is more recent.
Work sought to secure a building permit to install a Tesla charger on her property.
She says she wanted one because there are hardly any around the Cape to recharge her Tesla. But after waiting more than a month and a half for the permit to be approved, she ultimately decided to just forget about it.
Work said the process took too long and was too complicated.
After scrapping her request for the building permit in Cape Coral, she applied for a permit to install one at her home in Riverside, R.I., where she says the difference in approval times for the same permit felt like night and day.
“It was so easy to get it in Rhode Island,” Work said.
She added that the same permit request in Rhode Island is usually fulfilled, “the same week or the next day.”
Building permits and building codes vary by state as there is no baseline building code enforced by the federal government. Under the U.S. Constitution, it is the state’s right to enforce and regulate the codes, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Kaitlyn Mullen, Cape Coral’s senior public information specialist, says the Cape is no exception and must also follow statewide building codes like other Florida municipalities.
“Florida Building Code sets minimum standards that all local jurisdictions, including Cape Coral, must enforce,” Mullen said.
Building codes establish basic standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure safety throughout a community. Factors contribute to the type of regulations and the time required to process permits in different states. Those include the frequency of natural disasters, the use of more advanced building materials, and the overall progression of safety standards and development.
“High application volumes and the complexity of plan reviews contribute to the rate at which permits are issued — especially after disasters or periods of rapid growth,” Mullen said.
The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety made an assessment in 2024 of residential building code enforcement systems. Of the 18 Atlantic and Gulf Coast states most vulnerable to catastrophic hurricanes, Florida ranks No. 2 for building code adoption and enforcement. Virginia was first in enforcing codes.
Some residents said they feel the strict standards contribute to the backlog of building permit requests by flooding the system with requests for basic jobs, such as the installation of a concrete pad.
Donna Bikus, a nine-year resident of Cape Coral from Chicago, shares this same sentiment and proposes a solution she says will make the process for applying for and receiving building permits “more efficient.”
“I can understand why we need permits,” Bikus said. “But I think just to tool around with your AC and put in a new one, just to put in another little paver on your driveway, that should really be another separate ‘small improvement permit department.’”
Bikus said this would free up time and allow the smaller jobs to be approved faster. Larger projects, she said, could go through a separate division.
Mullen said the city has taken steps to alleviate the backlog by implementing an expanded version of the EnerGov Citizen Self-Service Portal. That’s a permitting software designed to make the process for requesting a permit “more efficient, accessible, and responsive.”
“The city has implemented ‘Push-Button’ permits through EnerGov that are issued immediately online,” Mullen said.
Permits under the “Push-Button” category include:
• Air-conditioning (residential)
• Emergency electrical repair/replacement (residential and commercial)
• Fence repair/replacement (residential)
• Garage door replacement (residential)
• Roof metal of shingle (residential)
• Roof tile (residential)
• Dock electric (residential)
• Plumbing re-pipe (residential and commercial)
• Shutters/awning (residential)
• Shutters/awning with electricity (residential)
The Push-Button function became effective on Jan. 17, 2023, less than a year after the EnerGov Citizen Self-Service Portal launched on Feb. 21, 2022.
“The city encourages residents to use the EnerGov portal to track their application status and to contact permitting staff for assistance,” Mullen said. “The city is working to improve efficiency and transparency in the permitting process.”
But even with these strides in the right direction, residents like Work, Bikus, and the Ellens said more needs to be done. They claimed the problems persist as the city grows rapidly.
Based on the 2023 census, the population of Cape Coral was just below 225,000 residents. By 2050, the city’s planning division expects a population surpassing 315,000.
Bikus and the others said if the situation is not fully addressed now, it will spiral into a logistical nightmare for future residents seeking to request a building permit for any job - big or small.
“I don’t think the whole city has a handle on what they’re actually doing or what they are trying to do,” Bikus said. “And I think the cracks are showing as the homes are getting bigger and bigger and there’s more money being thrown around.”
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