Palm Beach County requires a number of permits for various residential and commercial new construction, remodeling, and additions, such as driveways, culverts, structures, etc. Please contact the County for information.

For projects that relate to driveway culverts on District roadways, please see our Driveway Culverts pages for additional guidance.

Lot Filling

Palm Beach County codes governing the placement of fill are intended to protect landowners by requiring stormwater displaced by filling to be directed “to preserve existing and historical compliant drainage conveyance on developed and underdeveloped lots.” These codes also “serve to prevent adverse impacts and loss of storage capacity caused by unregulated fill activities, to protect the quality of the county’s surface water resources and preserve existing natural resources.” 

The way this is accomplished by the County is through its permit process. The County’s newly adopted policies limit lot filling to a number of specifically defined activities, including the following:

• Fill needed to facilitate the construction of a new structure placed subsequent to the issuance of a building permit by the Building Division.
• Fill authorized under a valid site development permit issued by the Building Division.
• Minor fill being placed for developed property maintenance purposes, i.e., landscaping, gardening, existing driveway maintenance, exclusive of drainage easements or designated wetlands. The maximum amount of fill considered to be minor is 20 cubic yards of clean fill per 1 acre lot-size, placed during any 24-month period for developed property maintenance. Minor filling that meets this criterion is exempt from county permitting.
• Fill may also be authorized through an approved Drainage Review by the Palm Beach County Land Development Division, through a permit issued by the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Protection, or in accordance with local, state or federal agencies designated rules.

It should also be noted that the filling of a pond requires a site development permit.

In addition, any fill operation affecting more than one acre must also comply with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System regulations (Section 27, Article VII, PBC Code), which are intended to improve the quality of stormwater discharges into the stormwater system and to increase public awareness of all stormwater discharges.

These are just a few policies set forth by Palm Beach County related to lot filling and grading activity. Violations of this policy may be subject to Code Enforcement citation under the Florida Statutes. For more information, go to PPM No. PB-0-128 - Lot Filling and Grading Activity.