Utility coordination and permit submittals for drive-thru and kiosk sites

Two clocks on every site

The city reviews the civil plans. The water provider, the electric provider and, where the site drains into a neighbor's system, the owner of that system each answer on their own schedule, outside the permit portal. If the utility side starts late, it sets the opening date, and nobody sees it until the permit is approved and the contractor is waiting on power. So we work the utility side alongside the civil submittal, not after it.

Water

We confirm who serves the pad, whether there is capacity, where the connection point is, whether a main extension is needed and how long the provider's letter lasts. We also check whether sewer reaches the pad by gravity. The tap, meter, backflow assembly and service line are drawn and submitted on a sealed water service plan, filed alongside the civil submittal, not after it.

Power

Electric service runs on its own clock, apart from the building permit. Larger units, such as some ice machines, can need three-phase power. We coordinate with the electric provider on where the service reaches the site and the route it takes, and show it on the plans. The building's electrical design stays with your prototype's MEP engineer; we attach to it, not redesign it.

Storm drain

On a small pad the storm question is usually where the water goes. We request the neighboring sites' approved plans and storm as-builts, check whether the city's drainage rules trigger detention, and tie the storm pipe into an existing system where the neighbor's design allows it. Where the drainage reaches a state highway, TxDOT approves the drainage impact. The storm design sits in the sealed site and grading plans.

Permit submittal

1. Confirm who reviews. A mailing address does not always match the agency that reviews the site. One Clearwater address sat under the City of Largo, so the application went to Largo.
2. Turn the city's rules into a checklist. We read the submittal requirements, the zoning code and public records before drawing.
3. Meet the reviewer early where the city offers a pre-application meeting.
4. Build the set. The plan set repeats: a cover sheet, a site plan and a utility plan on each site's survey. We add the sheets a city asks for, such as photometric, profile, landscape or kiosk elevation sheets.
5. File a complete package. A transmittal listing every document, the sealed drawings, the calculations as separate files and the filled application forms, checked by a second engineer before it goes, and uploaded through the agency's portal where it has one.
6. Answer every comment. Some portals return a resubmittal that misses a comment. We update every sheet the change touches, resubmit, and file a site plan amendment where a site needs one.

Where a city or utility requires the engineer to be registered as a vendor or contractor, we complete that registration.

A driveway onto a state highway needs its own TxDOT access permit. A water or sewer line in state right of way needs a TxDOT utility permit, filed by the utility that will own the line.

What you get

• The providers for water, sewer and power identified, the water service application filed alongside the civil submittal, and the power service location and route coordinated with the electric provider.
• A sealed civil set built to that city's checklist, filed as one complete package.
• Written answers to every round of comments, with revised sheets.
• A record of what each city and utility asked for, so the next site in that market starts from it.

Work like this

• Fate, Texas. A car wash site where records requests found the neighbors' storm system. The storm network ties into an existing invert on the site next door, with a TxDOT driveway submittal and a comment response to the city.
• Drive-up water kiosk program. Civil site plans and city review on 128 sites in seven states, 50 of them in Texas. Agency review and plan revisions are the largest line of work in the program.
• Arizona and Florida ice vending sites. Records requests, a city checklist in Tempe, a jurisdiction catch in Clearwater, then submittals, comment responses and resubmittals on 43 addresses.
• Jacksonville, Florida. A sealed water service plan to move an ice machine off a shallow well, submitted to the utility.

MES has 525+ projects and 165+ small-footprint sites, and is licensed in 9 states.

What affects time and cost

• What the city adds. Extra sheets, a design review or a site plan amendment grow the set.
• The main. A water main extension, and who builds it, changes the scope.
• The power. A service upgrade or three-phase power adds coordination with the electric provider.
• The neighbors. Whether storm records exist and whether the site can tie into an existing system.
• The jurisdiction. An address that sits under another agency, or a state highway frontage, adds a reviewer.
• Review rounds. Review time belongs to the city, the utility and TxDOT. It is not ours to promise.

The first read of your sites is a fixed fee, credited in full to a two- or three-site pilot. After that, each site is a lump sum.