In Florida to get building permits for raw land you have to have environmental surveys done.
Those kinds of surveys start at around $2,000 or $3,000. They look for what can be classified as wetlands which most available raw land in Florida will have to some degree. That doesn’t necessarily mean standing or flowing water. In part they consider elevation and depressions in the ground, and plant and soil types to decide what is classified as wetlands
If some of the ground to be cleared and leveled is deemed to be wetlands you have to pay mitigation fees. I was told that at the time they were $15,000 per 1/4 acre. Not cheap if you are looking at half an acre or more. So you should absolutely get the environmental survey done before signing an agreement of sale, or at least have a contingency in the agreement to give you an out if it’s going to cost too much to develop the ground.
The bottom line is for one potential building lot you’re going to spend a couple thousand dollars before you even know if you want to buy the lot. Unless you can find one you like that already had the surveys done, but accordingly that will cost a little more. And a lot more if the mitigation fees have been paid.
Interesting thing here, I think the big developers get around the mitigation fees by aggregating the areas classified as wetlands into ponds. Then not only do they not have to pay those fees (which could be huge for a larger development) but they get to charge a higher lot premium for a “water feature”. This ties in with my opinion that the developers pretty much own the state legislature in Florida because they are one of if not the largest block of political contributors, so the laws get written for their benefit. Again just my opinion, and I may expand on that another time.
Moving To Florida 