Concrete Contractors in Loxahatchee Groves, FL

A Town Permit, Not a County One: Who Issues What Here

Loxahatchee Groves incorporated after a referendum on October 10, 2006, and its charter describes a compact rural community that wanted to protect equestrian, farming and nursery businesses. It is a town with its own Building Department, Public Works and Town Engineer, which is the main difference from the unincorporated Acreage to the north, where the County and a drainage district split the job.

Since January 13, 2025, registrations and building permits are processed only through the Town's MGO portal, and inspections can be booked on weekdays with a 3 p.m. cut-off the day before. The Town says all driveways within its limits must be permitted, and its Building Official makes the final call on whether a given job needs a permit. The Town's list of exemptions under the Florida Building Code does not mention driveways, slabs or flatwork. The countywide rules are in the Palm Beach County permit guide, and the Acreage and Loxahatchee Groves guide sets the two side by side.

The Town's Driveway Package, Item by Item

The driveway checklist, written to the Florida Building Code, 8th Edition, asks for an application, an Owner/Builder Affidavit and Notice of Commencement if they apply, a New Construction Affidavit, a Hold Harmless form, utility easement consent from each company, a marked-up survey showing every square foot of driveway and walkway work, a signed contract or invoice, and a paver or concrete installation detail. For the right-of-way, the apron and sidewalk are replaced with concrete of at least 3000 PSI. The area is formed and inspected before the pour, the apron flares out while holding a 2 foot setback from the property line, and the formboard inspection checks the pitch for drainage.

The county-wide permit application used in the package requires notarization at $2,500 or more or for any owner-builder, and a Notice of Commencement is recorded for a direct contract over $2,500. The Town's fee schedule, Resolution 2025-75, charges $250 for a permit up to $7,500 of value and adds 2 percent beyond that. A right-of-way job started after the fact costs four times the permit fee, and credit card payments carry a 4 percent convenience fee. We put each of these lines in your written quote.

Fifteen-Inch Culverts and Town-Staked Inverts

Section 70-025 of the unified land development code requires a culvert at every driveway connection to the road, and the Town's driveway policy sets the build order. The permittee excavates the swale, installs the culvert and sods the easement. Within ten working days of issuance, Public Works stakes the culvert invert and swale centerline elevations. A concrete or asphalt driveway needs a form board or base inspection before anything is placed over the pipe.

The culvert diameter is 15 inches or as the Town determines. The pipe is smooth-interior corrugated HDPE or polypropylene rated H-20, or A-2000 PVC, with flared end sections. Vertical walls, end posts and headwalls, decorative or not, are not permitted in Town easements. The easement gets Bahia sod, and Floratam is not permitted, with no irrigation in the right-of-way. A Right-of-Way Use Permit covers earthwork, grading and paving in the swale, can run up to 180 days, and requires 48 hours' notice to Public Works before work starts. As concrete contractors in Loxahatchee Groves, we sequence all of this before the truck is booked. See our driveway page for the pour itself.

Width, Count and Spacing Under the Town's ULDC

Section 100-030 sets no minimum width for a residential driveway and a maximum of 24 feet. Section 100-025 allows one driveway per property, or two on a lot of at least one acre with spacing between them. Section 100-020 keeps a driveway at least 50 feet from a roadway intersection. The Town's driveway policy adds that a property with road frontage on two sides can have up to three driveways, with a 90 foot total and 40 foot single culvert length, and that canal maintenance roads are not allowed driveways. Two sections of the Town's paper differ on the spacing between driveways, so confirm the number with the Town before we lay out a second entrance.

Setbacks here are deep, and as concrete contractors in Loxahatchee Groves, we measure from the survey, not the fence. The agricultural-residential district asks for 50 feet in front, 25 feet at the side and rear, and 40 feet on a side street, with reduced setbacks and a 40 percent coverage limit for nonconforming lots. Parking-area design rules also keep driveways, aisles and walkways at least 10 feet from a property line, apart from noted exceptions. We read your survey against all three before we draw a patio, a shop slab or a second apron.

Replacing in Kind Versus Changing the Surface

The Town's policy draws a line that matters for pricing. That policy treats a like-kind driveway replacement in the same location, with the required cover, apart from a new driveway, and the Building Official has the final word, so check with the Building Department before you rely on it. Changing the type of driveway, such as from base rock to asphalt or concrete, requires a New Driveway Permit. So does replacing or extending a culvert.

That affects owners on base rock roads who want a hard surface, and as concrete contractors in Loxahatchee Groves, we say so at the estimate. Moving to concrete is a new driveway in the Town's eyes, which means the staking, the form board inspection and the culvert spec all apply. Here is how we handle the choice at the estimate: we look at the existing surface and the culvert, tell you which category the job falls in, and price the permit and inspection steps next to the concrete. Our driveway page for The Acreage shows the neighboring ITID version for anyone whose lot sits just across the line.

Why Stamped Work Stays Off the Easement

The Town's policy says paver blocks and stamped concrete in a Town easement are subject to removal during Town road or swale work and will not be replaced by the Town under any circumstances. When the Town replaces permitted driveways in a retrofit, it uses 6 inches of compacted base rock. That makes decorative work in the easement a gamble with money you cannot recover.

As concrete contractors in Loxahatchee Groves, we pour plain broom concrete in the easement, joint it at the property line and run the pattern and color inside the lot; that is our plan for stamped work. A stamped section costs $12 to $20 per square foot, so a 300 square foot entry pad is $3,600 to $6,000, and that part sits inside your lot, outside the easement the removal policy covers. The stamped concrete page shows the patterns we pour, and the finished seam at the line is part of the plan, not a surprise on pour day.

Riviera Sand, Zone AE and a Dependent Water Control District

NRCS soil maps at 30 points inside the town show Riviera fine sand at 73.3 percent of points, the depressional phase at 10 percent, and Pinellas, Pineda, Floridana and Boca fine sands and Okeelanta muck at 3.3 percent each. The Natural Resources Conservation Service rates all of them very limited for dwellings without basements. Flood maps put 76.7 percent of the points in Zone X and 23.3 percent in Zone AE. Check your own parcel on the map before pricing fill or pad height; as concrete contractors in Loxahatchee Groves, we plan for wet sand.

The Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District, created in April 1917, is a dependent district of the Town. It handles drainage for flood control and maintains canals across roughly 8,000 acres, with 29 miles of unpaved roads and 30 miles of canals, and the Town Council serves as its board. The Town's swale flyer says not to fill, grade, pave or alter swales without authorization and not to place fill over culverts. Raising a pad changes where the water goes, so we plan grades with the Town's swale rules in mind. See our slab page for base and reinforcement on wet ground.

Base-Rock Roads, Grading Days and Getting a Truck Down F Road

Town roads include unpaved base rock, formerly called shellrock, and Public Works posts a monthly grading schedule with planned maintenance dates. We check it before scheduling a pour, so the pour date does not land on a grading day. Collecting Canal Road, Folsom Road, B Road, where Palm Beach State College sits, and Loxahatchee Groves Park are the landmarks we use to place a lot, and Town Hall is on F Road.

The Town counted 3,355 people and 1,292 housing units on 12.51 square miles in 2020. Census estimates put median year built at 1987 and the median owner-occupied value at $583,200, with 1,025 of 1,131 occupied homes lived in by their owners. Nine in ten occupied homes are owner-lived, so think of jobs like a new or longer driveway, a back slab for a shop, a barn apron or a walkway. Wellington and Westlake are close, Lake Belvedere Estates is farther east, and each has a different permit desk. The service area page lists them.

Put the Culvert Line in Writing With Concrete Contractors in Loxahatchee Groves

If you are comparing concrete contractors in Loxahatchee Groves, ask each for the culvert size, who excavates the swale, who calls Public Works for stakes, and when the form board inspection is booked. Royal Palm Beach Concrete Co is Locally Owned & Operated, and the written quote comes before any work begins. Send a survey, a photo of the swale and your road name through the contact page, and we will set the walk. You leave the visit with the culvert size, the permit list, the Town steps in order and a written number. If your lot touches a canal maintenance road, a second frontage or a long approach, tell us up front, because those change the culvert length and the driveway count. Bring any earlier permit paperwork or a sketch from Public Works, and we will build the quote around it. We would rather spend an hour on the lot than rework a pour.