What it costs in government fees to build a home in Brevard County, Florida
Every impact fee, water and sewer connection charge, and building permit for a new
single-family detached home in unincorporated Brevard County — itemized, sourced, and dated.
Total government fees$15,627Single-family detached, 2,000 sq ft heated/conditioned, 4BR, 3/4" water meter, county water and sewer, unincorporated area. Ranges from $15,627 (verified subtotal — excludes the unpublished base building permit fee)
to $24,209 (if the August 2026 utility resolution is adopted, effective October 1, 2026).
This total is incomplete, and here is exactly whyBrevard County does not publish a building permit fee schedule anywhere. The base fee is set by Resolution 2007-170, adopted August 7, 2007, which is not posted online. The Clerk's resolution indexes for 2007 through 2026 show no later amendment. The total below is therefore a VERIFIED FLOOR that excludes the base building permit fee, an 'Unlicensed Contractor Activity Enforcement' fee, and the two state surcharges that are computed as percentages of the permit fee. Closing this gap requires a public records request to Brevard Planning and Development.
Check the utility provider before you rely on thisAt least four utilities serve unincorporated Brevard — the county, the City of Cocoa (which serves large unincorporated areas including Merritt Island and Port St. John), Barefoot Bay district, and the cities of Melbourne, Titusville and Palm Bay. Establish the provider before relying on these figures. Note also that the county's sewer connection fee is tiered by BEDROOM COUNT: 1-3 BR $2,257, 4 BR $2,610, 5 BR $2,962.
Impact & mobility fees
Fee
Amount
Educational Facilities
Eff. Jan 2, 2017 · sourceIndependently corroborated by a School Board impact fee credit agreement itemizing every single-family unit at this exact figure.
$5,096.50
Transportation
Eff. Jan 2, 2017 · sourceThis IS the post-moratorium reinstated schedule — the transportation moratorium ended for permits after 12/31/2016. Do not apply any further reduction.
Emergency Medical Services
Eff. Jan 2, 2017 · sourceBrevard's residential impact fees are flat per dwelling unit — square footage is irrelevant to every one of them.
$38.65
Subtotal
$9,838
Water & sewer — Brevard County Utility Services
Fee
Amount
Connection Charge — Sanitary Sewer, residential 4 bedrooms
Eff. Feb 8, 2022 · Res. 22-008 Ex. A p.6 · source⚠ Tiered by bedroom count. Quoting the headline 1-3 bedroom rate of $2,257 for a 4-bedroom house understates by $353. A pending resolution would raise this to $4,500 flat effective 10/1/2026.
$2,610.00
Connection Charge — Water Service, single family residential
Eff. Feb 8, 2022 · Res. 22-008 Ex. A p.8 · source⚠ A pending resolution heard August 4, 2026 would raise this to $8,500 effective 10/1/2026 — a $6,597 increase on this line alone.
$1,903.00
Meter installation charge, 3/4 inch
Eff. Feb 8, 2022 · Res. 22-008 Ex. A p.9 · sourcePending increase to $295.
$200.00
Subtotal
$4,713
Building permits, surcharges & other
Fee
Amount
Utility Services development review — plan review $90 + inspection $360
Eff. Jan 1, 2025 · Res. 24-115 Ex. A · source⚠ Whether a single lot connecting to an existing main triggers both charges or only plan review is not stated by the county.
$450.00
Residential driveway — permanent, per connection
Eff. Invalid Date · sourcePer Fee Resolution 16-189. Plus a $25 application processing fee.
$150.00
Land Development Review
Eff. Invalid Date · source⚠ Mapped from the county's permit-portal fee object to the published 'Lot Drainage/Flood Protection Fee' line by inference, not a quoted match.
$150.00
Natural Resources review — environmental $90 + landscape/land clearing $90
Eff. Jan 17, 2017 · sourceLots over 1.25 acres pay $300 for the land clearing review instead of $90.
$180.00
Address Assignment — official residential address
Eff. Jan 1, 2017 · source
$60.00
Zoning Review — residential building permit
Eff. Invalid Date · sourceCommercial is $210 — a two-column trap where residential is the correct column.
$36.00
Application Processing Fee
Eff. Invalid Date · sourcePer Fee Resolution 16-189. Also charged separately on the driveway permit.
$25.00
Base building permit fee
effective date not published · source⚠ NOT PUBLISHED. Set by Resolution 2007-170, adopted August 7, 2007, which does not appear online. The Clerk's resolution indexes for 2007-2026 show no later amendment. The two state surcharges (1.5% and 1.0%) are computed on this fee and are therefore also unquantified. Obtain by public records request.
$0.00
Subtotal
$1,076
Fees Brevard County does not charge
Verified absent, so you don't go looking for them.
No parks or recreation impact fee. Brevard's program covers only Transportation, Fire Rescue, EMS, Correctional, Library, Solid Waste and Educational Facilities.
No law enforcement or police impact fee — the Correctional Facilities fee is not a police fee.
No general government or public buildings impact fee. No stormwater or drainage impact fee.
No separate electrical, plumbing or mechanical trade permit on a new home — the county's own page states the permit 'includes all sub-trades such as electrical, plumbing, and roofing.'
No fire prevention review fee on new one- and two-family residences.
No square-footage tiering on any impact fee — all are flat per dwelling unit.
No active impact fee discount, suspension, moratorium or phase-in as of July 2026.
What we could not verify
These are reported as gaps rather than estimated. The total above is a floor.
The base building permit fee and the Unlicensed Contractor Activity Enforcement fee are not published anywhere. Both, plus the two state surcharges computed on them, are excluded from the total.
The Land Development Review at $150 is an inference from the permit portal's fee object name, not a quoted match
Address Assignment and Application Processing amounts come from a 2017 fee schedule snapshot; only the $25 is re-confirmed on a current form
Whether Utility Services' $90 plan review and $360 inspection both apply to a single-lot connection
A current development-fees spreadsheet exists on the county site but returns 404 to every archival crawl and is behind a bot challenge live. Obtaining it would likely close most of these gaps.
Stormwater utility per-parcel rate not located
Why this number is easy to get wrong
A pending impact fee study calculates a full-cost single-family fee of $26,298 and a statutory maximum of $6,982 alongside the current adopted $4,742. Reading the 'Calculated' column would overstate by 455%. Nothing has been adopted — the July 21, 2026 item was permission to advertise only.
A pending utility resolution would raise water from $1,903 to $8,500 and sewer to $4,500 effective October 1, 2026. Its exhibit already carries a signature block reading 'DONE, ORDERED AND ADOPTED, this 4 day of August, 2026' — a date in the future. It is not adopted.
Mainstream news coverage of the utility increase transposes water and sewer. The county's own documents say water is $1,903 and sewer $2,257 at the base tier; the articles reverse them.
brevardfl.gov sits behind a bot challenge that blocks ordinary retrieval of even PDFs. The unlock is to bypass the CMS entirely — the Legistar agenda API, the Legistar attachment host, and the Clerk's ordinance indexes are all unprotected and carry better, fresher documents than the website.
A 2017-dated impact fee schedule looks stale but is in fact current — the June 2026 study is what proves it.
This page models one house. 2,000 sq ft, single-family detached,
3/4" meter, standard district.
If you're underwriting an actual project — a unit mix, a different district, a CO date that might slip
past a scheduled increase — we compute that stack for you.
Need a county we haven't published? That's the main thing we do.from $290What we compile, and what it costs →
How to use this. Every figure is transcribed from an official
Brevard County or Florida Statutes document, linked inline, with its effective date. No third-party
legal-code mirrors were used — in testing, one returned impact fees off by 2.4×. Built for screening
and pro-forma work; confirm with the county before you sign anything.