Procedures for Major Subdivision Plan & Plat Review

All new residential projects classified as a Major Subdivision, per Article II of the Clay County Land Development Code, are subject to development review.

Development review for residential projects consists of 4 plan review elements: Development Review Committee Review, Preliminary Plan & Plat Review, Final Plan Review & Preliminary Plat Approval and Final Plat Review. The following will outline each element:

Development Review Committee Conceptual Plan Review

Every project will begin with this step. The applicant will provide the Development Review Committee (DRC) conceptual plans of the proposed development for review. The DRC is made up of various County agencies and departments that will provide conceptual feedback for the project based on their individual discipline. The following items must be delivered to the Department of Development Services to be placed on the DRC agenda:

1. Three (3) paper copies and one (1) electronic copy (.PDF format) of the conceptual plan.
2. Three (3) paper copies of the project written statement (format provided by Clay County) and one (1) electronic copy (.PDF format). The electronic copy may contain both the written statement and conceptual plans.
3. DRC review fee of $ 250.00.

The DRC meets every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. in the Clay County Administration Building, 477 Houston Street, Green Cove Springs, FL 32043, 3rd floor, Planning and Zoning Division Conference Room. The applicant will submit the aforementioned items to the Department of Development Services ten (10) days prior to the DRC meeting in which they would like to attend.

Preliminary Plan & Plat Review
Once the conceptual plan has been reviewed by the DRC, the applicant will be required to submit preliminary construction plans and a preliminary plat to the Department of Development Services for review. The preliminary plan and plat will be reviewed by the appropriate County Staff. The plat shall conform to Section 2-11 of Article II, Clay County Land Development Code and Florida Statute Chapter 177. The preliminary plan shall conform to Article II, Article VI, and Article VIII of the Clay County Land Development Code.

The applicant shall submit the following items to the Department of Development Services for review:
1. Six (6) paper copies of the plan & plat.
2. Development Review Submittal Form. Download Here
3. Six (6) paper copies of the written statement. (format provided by Clay County)
4. One (1) electronic copy of the plan and plat. (format provided by Clay County GIS Division)
5. One (1) paper copy of preliminary drainage calculations.
6. Review Fees as Follows: $1,200.00 + $50.00 per lot.

Plan Review - Once a preliminary plan has been distributed for review, the development review staff shall have thirty (30) working days to review and identify any non-compliant code regulations. Each plans reviewer shall prepare a written review of the plan and submit such review to the Department of Development Services who will forward the comments to the design professional to incorporate into the site plans. If a plan is disapproved during the preliminary review the plan reviewer who disapproved the plan shall cite the applicable code section where the plans are found to be non-compliant.

Be advised that at this stage of review, plans, plats and calculations are not required to be signed and sealed.

Preliminary Plan & Plat requirements may be found online at www.claycountygov.com under the development review or land development regulations section within the Planning & Zoning Division main page. Chapter177 of the Florida Statutes can be found by navigating through www.myflorida.com

All checks for fees shall be made out to CCBOCC. Currently Clay County does not accept credit or debit cards for site plan submittals.

The staff will be available during business hours to answer any questions at (904) 269-6301.

For full preliminary and final plan contents, design, and landscaping requirements please download the following Articles of the Clay County Land Development Code:

Article II Development Review
Article VI Landscaping Article
VIII Design Standards

A complete land development code can be accessed from the County website link below.
Land Development Code

Final Construction Plan Review & Preliminary Plat Approval
After addressing the non-compliance issues raised during the Preliminary Plan and Plat review, the applicant shall submit revised plans and plats to the Department of Development Services for review and approval. The applicant shall submit the required items, plans, copies, etc. as listed below along with a written letter identifying each issue presented during plan review and how the issue was addressed and or incorporated into the final plans. The applicant shall submit:

1. Nine (9) paper copies of signed and sealed final engineering plans.
2. Development Review Submittal Form Download Here
3. One (1) paper copy of signed and sealed final drainage calculations.
4. Six (6) Applicant response letters.
5. Nine (9) paper copies of the revised preliminary plat.
6. Public Safety Fee $50.00.

Plan Review- Within ten (10) working days after receipt of the plan by the County, each department shall review the plan, note any non-compliant code regulations on the plan or recommend the plan for approval. On the basis of the department comments, the Department of Development Services shall determine whether the plan shall be approved or disapproved. If a plan is approved or approved with conditions, the Department of Development Services shall notify the applicant to submit appropriate documents for issuance of a permit.

If the plan is disapproved, the Department of Development Services shall notify the applicant in writing of the issues of non-compliance. The applicant shall then have ninety calendar days to submit a revised plan without being required to pay an additional fee. If more than ninety days elapses between notification and re-submittal, the applicant shall be required to submit a new plan with all of the appropriate fees.

Effect of Plan Approval – Approval of a final plan shall constitute approval of a preliminary plat and site development plans for a major subdivision.

Expiration of Plan Approval – Approval of a final plan for a residential subdivision shall lapse if a final plat is not recorded within two years of approval of the final plan.

Renewal of Plan Approval – Renewal of an approved final plan shall not be permitted for any development.

Mandatory Pre-construction Meeting
A mandatory pre-construction meeting will be held before any construction activities are performed on the approved site. The meeting will be held with the Engineering Division of the Department of Development Services. Once the applicant has attended this meeting, copies of the approved plans and plat will be furnished to the applicant for their use. At the time of the pre-construction meeting the applicant shall furnish all other agency permits to the county, i.e. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, St. Johns River Water Management District, Florida Department of Transportation, etc.

The applicant will need to contact the Engineering Division at (904) 269-6301 to schedule the meeting. At that time the applicant will be given a pre-construction meeting packet to be completed before the meeting.

Final Plat Review
A final plat is required before any land or lots may be sold. The applicant has one (1) year from the approved preliminary plat date to submit a final plat for recording. When submitting for final review, the applicant shall submit the following to the Department of Development Services:

1. Six (6) paper copies of the Final Plat.
2. One (1) opinion of title letter meeting the requirements of Article II, Section 2-11(5)(c) along with copies of any instruments or documents reflected within the Title of Opinion.
3. Final Plat review fee of $ 250.00 up to 25 lots or $ 250.00 plus $10.00 a lot if greater than 25 lots.

The county staff shall have a minimum of thirty (30) working days to review the final plat. Once the plat has been reviewed, the applicant shall be notified, in writing, of any plat deficiencies.

Upon receipt of the plat comments, the applicant shall correct the identified inconsistencies / deficiencies and submit to the Department of Development Services the following:

1. One (1) fully executed mylar copy of the Final Plat.
2. One (1) updated Title of Opinion letter.
3. One (1) response letter identifying each issue and how it was corrected.
4. Three (3) paper copies of the executed Final Plat.

The County will then have a minimum of ten (10) days to review the final mylar. If approved by staff, the next step will be to place the final plat before the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) for their consideration. The BCC meets every second (2nd) and fourth (4th) Tuesdays of the month. All items must be submitted and approved one (1) week prior to the upcoming meeting, by noon (12:00 pm).

After BCC acceptance, the plat will be signed and forwarded to the Clay County Clerk’s Office for the official recording. The Clerk’s office will notify the applicant that the plat has been recorded and will require that the applicant visit the Clerk’s office and pay the appropriate recording fee. Once the plat is recorded and the fee paid, the applicant shall submit two (2) paper copies of the recorded plat to the Department of Development Services.

NO BUILDING CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY SHALL BE ISSUED UNTIL THE FINAL PLAT HAS BEEN RECORDED.

Post Plan Approval Revisions
After the construction plans are approved and the project is under construction it is understood that things may change due to various field and unforeseen conditions. If the approved plans are to be revised, the applicant shall be required to submit the following for approval.

1. Three (3) sets of signed and sealed revised plans.
2. A letter identifying what the revision is and its purpose.
3. The revised plan shall use revision clouds to note the revision and numbered revision triangles noting the revision number.
4. Fee of $ 100.00 per each revision submitted.
5. If a review by Public Safety is required the will be a flat fee of $50.00

After receipt of these items the County shall have a minimum of five (5) working days to approve the revision. The applicant will be notified, in writing, that the revision has been approved.

If anyone should have any questions regarding these procedures they may contact the Department of Development Services at (904) 269-6301.

Major Subdivision Review Flow Chart

DRC Concept Plan Review

Preliminary Plan & Plat Review

Final Plan Review

Plan Approval

Final Plat Review

Pre-Construction Meeting

BCC Approval*

Begin Construction

Plat Recording**

* All Plats shall be approved by the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) which meets twice a month.
** Plat recoding takes place at Room 101 at the Clay County Courthouse.

MINOR SUBDIVISION REVIEW WRITTEN STATEMENT (Example)
1. Owner Contact Information:
Joe Developer (If a corporate name is used please provide a contact person)
1234 Main Street
Green Cove Springs, FL 32043
Email joe.developer@mainstreet.com
Phone (000) 000-0000

2. Applicant Contact Information:
Tom Engineer
5678 Design Highway
Green Cove Springs, FL 32043
Email: tom.engineer@design.com
Phone: (000) 000-0000

3. Name of Development: AAA Subdivision

4. Parcel Identification Number: 00-00-0000000000

5. Zoning: Land Use:

6. Existing Site Description:
A. Vegetation: (A description of the current site vegetative conditions)
B. Soils: (A description of the soil characteristics)
C. Jurisdictional Land: (A statement whether or not jurisdictional lands are located on the property and what percentage is wetlands and uplands)
D. Drainage: ( a brief description of the site drainage)
E. FEMA Flood Zone: (Flood Zone information)

8. Proposed Development:
Site Narrative: (A description of the project)
A. Total Acres Of Site: 0 acres

11. Utility Service:
A. Sewage Treatment: (Name of Utility)
(If septic system is proposed, provide distance to nearest line)
B. Water Supply: (Name of Utility)(If well is proposed, provide distance to nearest line)
C. Electricity: (Name of Utility)

Clay County Digital Submittal Requirements (Plats)

Preliminary Plats are to be submitted in digital format using the following guidelines:

1. Geodetic Control
All coordinate values for survey points shall be in Florida State Plane System using the North American Datum (NAD83), Florida East Zone 0901. All measurements shall be in US Survey Feet. Positional accuracy of any digital submittal should be +/- 3 ft. The basis of bearing for the plans must be in NAD83 coordinate system.

Plats must be in Florida State Plane Coordinate system using the NAD 83 Datum at a 1:1 drawing scale in US survey feet.

Projected Coordinate System: NAD_1983_StatePlane_Florida_East_FIPS_0901_Feet Projection: Transverse_Mercator False_Easting: 656166.66666667 False_Northing: 0.00000000 Central_Meridian: -81.00000000 Scale_Factor: 0.99994118 Latitude_Of_Origin: 24.33333333 Linear Unit: Foot_US
Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_North_American_1983 Datum: D_North_American_1983 Prime Meridian: Greenwich
Angular Unit: Degree
References required on all boundary corners and on all PRM(s). One position, to be known as the “Northing,” shall give the position in a north and south direction; the other, to be known as the “Easting,” shall give the position in an east and west direction. Ref. F.S Ch. 177.151).

2. Annotation
Annotation submitted digitally shall be identical to the annotation submitted on the mylar hardcopy filed with the Clay County Clerk’s Office.

3. Data Formats
Digital files shall be provided to the County in one of the following formats:
DWG (AutoCAD format) DXF (AutoCAD ASCII drawing exchange file) SHP (ESRI ArcView format)

An accompanying ASCII text file shall be included that describes the Layers along with the Layer Numbers or Layer Names in the digital data file.

All digital files shall be mapped to scale and submitted to the county on 3.5" floppy disk or CDROM.

Clay County Digital Submittal Requirements (Plans)
Digital Submission for Construction Plan and As-Built Files

Software Applications:
The currently accepted software platforms are AutoCAD 2004 (DWG) or latter, Microstation 2005 (DXF) or latter, ESRI ArcMap 9.1 or latter (shape).

Methods of Submission:
Both Compact Disk (CD) and Digital Video Disk (DVD) are acceptable media.

Feature Requirement:
It is highly recommended to provide each required feature in a separate layer no XREF file. Drawing features shall include layer names as indicated below in Appendix. Features other than those thematically defined by the individual layer name/description shall not be included in that layer. Systems using numbered levels, such as Microstation, include a conversion table in the .dxf file creation process that can be used to specify named layers. No annotation shall be included in any feature layer and no feature shall be included in any annotation layer. Annotation for each layer shall be placed in annotation layers as specified in Appendix A. No polylines or annotation shall be stored in blocks. Explode all blocks that do exist. (Block references migrate to GIS as a single point at the block’s insertion point.)

All points shall be stored as “POINT” or “BLOCK REFERENCE” (can’t be softdesk point or aecc_point or any other feature type). Closure is critical in converting CAD elements to GIS features. If appropriate (i.e., parcel boundaries, subdivision boundary, etc.), all polygonal features shall be ‘snapped’ closed. Additional layers (not identified in Appendix A) may utilize any open layer as long as it meets the Feature requirement.

Layer Name Feature Type Description of example layers in Appendix A
Boundaries
X&Y Coordinates on two points
Lot boundaries
Lot Number and Annotation
Rights of way and Annotation
Street Center Lines
Easement line and Annotation
Street Names
Sidewalks (including ramps, if any)
Hydro, creeks/streams/river and Annotation
Pond/Lake and Annotation
Lamp poles, power poles, traffic light poles, etc.
Gas pipe
Railroads
Buffers (riparian, vegetation, etc.)
Storm drainage Systems and Annotation
Buildings and Annotation
Fire Hydrants and Annotation
Easements (utility, transp., wildlife, storm, etc.)
Wetlands and Annotation