Everything else in Florida site-civil permitting sits downstream of one document: the Environmental Resource Permit. If you've worked in Texas or Colorado, there is no direct equivalent — Florida folded stormwater quantity, stormwater quality, wetlands, and other water-quality review into a single permit program more than two decades ago, and it remains the single biggest driver of schedule and design constraints on almost any land-development project in the state. Get the ERP strategy wrong at concept plan and you will redesign a site plan later. Get it right early and the rest of the permitting sequence — FDEP's construction stormwater permit, the local site plan, FDOT access — tends to fall into line behind it.
This guide walks through what the ERP covers, who actually issues it, the General vs. Individual permit fork, and where wetland delineation and mitigation fit into a typical project timeline. For the rest of Florida's permitting stack, see the Florida site-civil permitting guide.
What Is a Florida Environmental Resource Permit (ERP)?
The ERP is Florida's consolidated permit for the water-resource impacts of land development: stormwater quantity (flood control), stormwater quality (pollutant removal), and impacts to wetlands and other surface waters, all reviewed under one application and one permit instead of three separate ones. Florida created the ERP program to replace what used to be a stormwater permit plus a separate wetlands ("dredge and fill") permit, and the consolidation is one of the more civil-engineer-friendly features of Florida's regulatory system — one reviewer, one set of design criteria, one permit document governing the site's water management system.
An ERP is required for essentially any project that will create or alter a stormwater management system, or that will dredge, fill, or otherwise alter a wetland or other surface water, above the thresholds set in the applicable rule. In practice, that captures nearly every land-development project of meaningful size in Florida — subdivisions, commercial pads, multifamily sites, industrial parks — because nearly all of them add impervious area and therefore a stormwater management system.
Who Issues the ERP — FDEP or a Water Management District?
Jurisdiction over the ERP is split between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and Florida's five regional Water Management Districts (WMDs). Which agency reviews your specific application depends on project type, size, and location — some categories of projects are reviewed by FDEP directly, others by the WMD in whose territory the site sits, and in some cases FDEP has delegated authority to the WMD for the majority of standard land-development ERPs. Because the delegation lines shift by project type and have been revised over time, the safe practice on any given site is to confirm directly with the applicable WMD (or FDEP) at pre-application which agency has jurisdiction, rather than assuming based on a past project.
Every parcel in Florida falls within exactly one WMD's boundary:
| Water Management District | Abbreviation | General Region |
|---|---|---|
| South Florida Water Management District | SFWMD | South Florida — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and the Everglades watershed north through Lake Okeechobee |
| Southwest Florida Water Management District | SWFWMD | West-central Florida — the Tampa Bay region south through Sarasota/Charlotte and inland to Polk/Highlands |
| St. Johns River Water Management District | SJRWMD | Northeast and east-central Florida — Jacksonville, Orlando, and the St. Johns River basin |
| Suwannee River Water Management District | SRWMD | North-central Florida — the Suwannee River basin and surrounding rural counties |
| Northwest Florida Water Management District | NWFWMD | The Panhandle — from the Apalachicola basin west to the Alabama/Escambia line |
Knowing which WMD covers your site tells you which agency's forms, design criteria, and pre-application process apply. Design criteria are broadly similar across districts because they derive from the same statewide rule framework, but each WMD publishes its own applicant's handbook with district-specific supplements — do not assume a design that clears one district's review will pass unmodified through another's.
What Does the ERP Actually Regulate?
A single ERP application bundles three distinct technical reviews:
- Stormwater quantity — the site's post-development peak discharge rate and volume, typically requiring detention or retention sized so the site does not increase flooding downstream relative to pre-development conditions.
- Stormwater quality (water quality treatment) — treatment volume and pollutant-removal performance for the site's runoff before it discharges, addressing nutrients, sediment, and other pollutants of concern.
- Wetlands and other surface waters — any dredging, filling, or other alteration of a wetland or other jurisdictional surface water on the parcel, including secondary and cumulative impacts to adjacent wetlands that aren't directly filled.
Because wetlands review sits inside the ERP, Florida land-development projects also frequently intersect with the federal Section 404 program (USACE) and its companion Section 401 water-quality certification — FDEP is Florida's 401 certifying agency. See Section 404/401 for land development for how the federal and state wetlands tracks relate; on many Florida sites, the ERP and a federal 404 permit are pursued essentially in parallel because they review overlapping wetland impacts under different statutory authorities.
General ERP vs. Individual ERP: Which Do I Need?
Florida's ERP program forks into two permit types:
- General ERP — a streamlined authorization for smaller, lower-impact activities that meet specific standard criteria spelled out in rule. General permits carry less discretionary review because the qualifying criteria are objective — meet all of them and the activity is authorized; fail to meet even one and you fall to an Individual ERP.
- Individual ERP — the standard, fully discretionary review required for anything that doesn't qualify for a general permit: larger sites, more significant wetland impacts, more complex water management systems, or projects near sensitive resources. Individual ERP review involves a more detailed application, a more substantial public-interest and cumulative-impact analysis, and typically a longer review process.
Which track applies depends on project size, impervious area, wetland acreage impacted, and site-specific factors — there is no single acreage number that works across all project types, so confirm eligibility for a general permit with the reviewing agency before you commit a site plan to that assumption.
What Triggers ERP Review on a Land-Development Project?
In practice, the ERP trigger shows up early in site planning, well before construction drawings: any project that adds a stormwater management system (new detention/retention, new conveyance, new outfall) or that proposes to alter a wetland or other surface water needs an ERP. That covers the overwhelming majority of greenfield and significant redevelopment projects. Renovation or infill projects that don't change the drainage pattern or touch a wetland may fall below the threshold — but "no wetlands on site" is a conclusion for a qualified environmental consultant to reach after a delineation, not an assumption made from an aerial photo.
How Does Wetland Delineation Work Under the ERP?
Before an ERP application can be finalized, the boundary of any wetland or other surface water on the parcel has to be delineated in the field using Florida's statewide methodology, typically by a qualified environmental consultant. The delineation is submitted to the reviewing agency (FDEP or the WMD) for verification — agencies will often conduct a field visit to confirm the delineated line before it's relied on in permitting. Getting delineation done early is one of the highest-leverage moves on a Florida project: it determines the developable envelope, drives the site plan, and sets the baseline for any mitigation calculation.
What Happens If My Project Impacts Wetlands?
If avoidance and minimization aren't fully achievable — and on many infill and even greenfield parcels they aren't — remaining wetland impacts must be offset with mitigation. Florida's mitigation hierarchy generally favors, in order of preference: avoiding impacts, minimizing impacts, and then offsetting unavoidable impacts through mitigation, most commonly by purchasing credits from a permitted mitigation bank serving the same drainage basin, or in some cases through permittee-responsible mitigation (constructing and maintaining a replacement wetland yourself). Mitigation bank credit cost and availability vary significantly by basin and by district, so price and confirm credit availability early — it is a real line item in project feasibility, not an afterthought.
Where Does the ERP Fit in a Land-Development Project's Sequence?
On a typical Florida land-development project, the practical sequence looks like this:
- Due diligence / concept plan — desktop wetland screening, WMD/FDEP jurisdiction check, and a rough stormwater concept.
- Wetland delineation and pre-application meeting — field delineation, agency verification, and an early conversation with the reviewing agency about the General vs. Individual ERP track.
- ERP application — submitted alongside or slightly ahead of the local site plan application, since local site plan approval in many jurisdictions is conditioned on ERP consistency.
- Parallel federal review — if wetlands are affected, a Section 404 application (and 401 certification through FDEP) typically runs in parallel with the state ERP.
- FDEP construction stormwater coverage — the separate NPDES-based Construction Generic Permit (SWPPP + NOI) is obtained once the ERP-approved design is finalized and before land disturbance; see the FDEP Construction Generic Permit guide for how that permit relates to (and differs from) the ERP.
- FDOT or local ROW / access permitting — pursued in parallel once the site plan and driveway geometry are set; see the FDOT driveway and connection permit guide.
Because the ERP touches the stormwater system design, the site layout, and the developable envelope all at once, it is usually the long pole in the Florida permitting tent — treat it as the permit that sets your schedule, not one that follows behind the site plan. Multifamily and commercial projects in Miami-Dade carry the added layer of DERM environmental review running alongside SFWMD's ERP jurisdiction, which is worth flagging at pre-application if your site sits in that county.