Driveway and Right-of-Way Permits — Palm Bay, Florida

Palm Bay uses a driveway permit for any curb, culvert, sidewalk or driveway work in a city road or easement, and a separate right-of-way use permit for most other work in city rights-of-way, both issued by Palm Bay Public Works.

The rule comes from the city's Land Development Code. Chapter 176 of the Palm Bay Land Development Code requires a driveway permit from the Public Works Department before anyone builds, removes, alters, repairs or relocates a curb, culvert, sidewalk, driveway, gutter or pavement in a city road or easement. The same section makes the owner of the abutting lot get a permit to tear out a driveway that is no longer needed and to put the curb, culvert and sidewalk back at the owner's expense.

The permit also covers drainage. Once a permit is issued, Public Works supplies the pipe and grade specifications for the culvert under the driveway, and swale locations measured from the property line must be built as specified (Chapter 176).

Everything else placed in a city right-of-way or easement falls under the right-of-way use rules in section 176.004: a permit from Public Works is required before installing, placing, building or replacing any improvement there, including jack and bores, poles and aboveground obstructions. Palm Bay Public Works describes the right-of-way as usually the roadway plus 10 to 15 feet behind the curb or edge of pavement (Public Works Permitting).

Under Resolution 2025-34, Palm Bay's fiscal year 2025-26 fees are $214 for a residential driveway permit in scattered lot subdivisions, $129 on a curb and gutter street and $405 for a right-of-way use permit.

City Council set these amounts in Resolution 2025-34, which took effect October 1, 2025. The fee section itself sits in Chapter 176, and section 176.020(B) says the Palm Bay code raises these fees by 4% each fiscal year, rounded to the nearest dollar, so a fee resolution for fiscal year 2026-27, which began October 1, 2026, may raise the figures below; none had been posted on the city's fee pages when this page was checked.

The fee schedule in Exhibit A of Resolution 2025-34 also lists $56, $84 and $112 for a second, third and fourth reinspection, $45 for a change of contractor, $39 for a single-family irrigation permit in the right-of-way, and $36 or $164 for a water service connection permit depending on whether boring is needed. Page A-5 sets the lot line improvement permit at $50 for review and $97 for the final inspection.

Payment method matters in Palm Bay. Public Works Permitting says card payments in the iMS portal carry a 2.95% convenience fee per transaction, ACH or electronic check payments a $1.50 flat fee, and a check paid in person costs nothing extra; the same page says cash payments are no longer accepted for driveway and drainage permits.

A Palm Bay driveway permit is applied for in the city's iMS portal, reviewed by Public Works, inspected before the concrete is poured and again at the end, and must be finished within 90 days.

Beginning March 6, 2023, the City of Palm Bay moved right-of-way and commercial driveway permitting into its online iMS portal, along with sitework permits, certificates of completion and occupancy and easement vacates (Public Works Permitting). Applicants create an iMS account first; anyone who cannot use the system can go to Public Works at 1050 Malabar Road SW or call (321) 952-3437 for help.

The Public Works Driveway/Drainage Team sits with the Building Department at 190 Malabar Road, Suite 105, open 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., a move the city dated to February 24, 2023. Inspections are scheduled, cancelled or checked by email at pwdriveway@palmbayfl.gov or by text, and the Public Works inspection codes are 7000 (pre-pour) and 7010 (final) (Public Works Permitting).

Timing is strict. Under the Palm Bay code a driveway permit expires at the end of 90 days unless extended, and expirations beyond 90 days require a new application (section 176.020(A); section 176.020(B)). For a new house, section 176.021 lets the owner apply for the driveway permit together with the building permit, but no certificate of occupancy for a new Palm Bay home that needs a driveway can be issued until Public Works has permitted and given final approval to that driveway, and the driveway must be finished within 90 days of the permit.

The Palm Bay Building Department lists driveway approval from Public Works, at 321-952-3437, among the items needed before a certificate of occupancy, next to the Brevard County impact fee receipt and the septic and well approval (Building Department CO checklist).

When work is unfinished at the certificate of occupancy stage, or the right-of-way has been damaged and not repaired, Palm Bay Public Works may require a performance bond: section 176.020(C) sets it at a $100 nonrefundable processing fee plus a $2,000 retainer refundable when the work is finished within 30 days, raised for work worth more than $2,000.

Palm Bay bars most private uses of the right-of-way, from decorative walls and planters to unpermitted irrigation, and requires a right-of-way use permit for the items it does allow, such as private irrigation, landscaping, wells and docks.

The prohibited list in section 176.004(B) is long: mailboxes other than those prescribed by the U.S. Postal Service and FDOT standards, decorative or retaining walls, barriers, construction materials beyond the permit period, soil or debris, trees and shrubs outside the FDOT landscape rule, wells, benches, planters, and privately owned irrigation systems unless Public Works specifically approves the irrigation. Palm Bay Public Works publishes separate forms for private irrigation, private landscaping, a private well and a private dock in the right-of-way, each paired with a hold harmless agreement (Public Works Permitting).

Some work needs no permit. Palm Bay Public Works says permits may not be required for routine maintenance or service connections that disturb no more than 100 square feet and do not touch travel lanes, and section 176.004(C) limits the franchisee exemption to work that leaves pavement alone, disturbs no more than 100 square feet, goes no deeper than 48 inches and is restored with sod in front of developed lots.

Restoration is the permit holder's job. Section 176.005 makes anyone who damages a Palm Bay right-of-way restore it or pay Public Works the repair cost, and a permittee who has not done so gets no further permits. The right-of-way permit conditions add that right-of-way permit holders must notify the Right-of-Way Use Coordinator 48 hours before starting work and again when work is complete, and must sod disturbed soil in front of developed lots (conditions, page 4).

Digging also triggers state law. Section 556.105, Florida Statutes requires an excavator to notify the one-call system (Sunshine 811) not less than 2 full business days before excavation, which applies to a Palm Bay driveway culvert as much as to a utility trench along Malabar Road.

Palm Bay commercial driveways must meet set widths, sit at least 50 feet apart, stay 120 feet from major intersections on side streets and be paved to the edge of the road.

Spacing rules in section 176.022(B) to (G) allow one driveway per parcel with up to 150 feet of street frontage and one more for each additional 150 feet. Palm Bay commercial driveways must sit at least 50 feet apart at the right-of-way line, may not sit closer than 120 feet to the nearest major intersection on a minor side street, need a raised median when they carry three or more lanes, and must be paved from the property line to the edge of the road. Curbing is required on every curb break except single-family and duplex lots (section 176.008).

The Palm Bay commercial driveway application states that the permit expires 365 days from issuance, with a 48-hour notice before construction and a start within 90 days (application page 2; general conditions). That 365-day term on the form differs from the 90-day expiry in Chapter 176, so the expiry date printed on the issued permit is the one to plan around.

Sight lines limit landscaping at every Palm Bay driveway, commercial or residential: section 176.007 keeps a clear zone between 2 and 6 feet high in triangles with 10-foot sides on each side of a driveway and 30-foot sides at street corners.

A driveway onto a state road in Palm Bay, such as Malabar Road east of Babcock Street or U.S. 1, needs an access permit from the Florida Department of Transportation as well as any city approval.

Section 335.182, Florida Statutes puts vehicular access and connections to or from the State Highway System under FDOT regulation, and defines a connection to include driveways. FDOT's CFLRoads project page lists Malabar Road east of Babcock as State Road 514 and U.S. 1 as State Road 5 (FDOT project 430136-1). Palm Bay's own Public Works Projects page notes that ownership of Malabar Road is shared in segments between the city, Brevard County and FDOT, so the first question for any Palm Bay driveway on a major road is who owns that stretch.

Canal banks bring in another agency. The Melbourne-Tillman Water Control District at 5990 Minton Road NW is one of the utility and service companies, alongside FPL, AT&T, Spectrum and Florida City Gas, whose original notarized letter stating whether it objects the city requires for an easement or street vacate (Public Works Permitting). Easement vacates are heard by Palm Bay City Council, and the Land Development Division decides first whether a variance is needed.

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Public Works website.