Miami-Dade’s parking-lot certificates: illumination and guardrails

Two forms that go with the reports

With the structural and electrical reports, Miami-Dade County asks for two certifications about the parking that serves the building, where they apply: one on illumination, one on guardrails. They are filed with the rest of the recertification package, on the county’s own forms.

Neither one is a promise that a lot passes. Each form records what was measured or found, and the board learns from it whether anything has to be corrected before the recertification can close.

The illumination certification

Light levels are measured on site, at night, in the parking lot that serves the building, and compared with the county’s standard for that type of building. The form records the measured levels and whether they meet that standard or do not.

Where they do not, the usual fixes are electrical: failed fixtures, poles or photocells, or lamps that were swapped for weaker ones. Once corrected, the lot is measured again for the record.

Trees that have grown over the light poles since the lot was built are a common cause, and the cheapest one to correct: trimming them is often all it takes.

The guardrail certification

This form first answers a simple question: is the parking lot next to a canal, a lake or another body of water? If it is not, the form says so. If it is, it records whether parked vehicles are protected by the guardrail the county requires along the water.

Where a guardrail is missing or damaged, the owner needs a permit to install or repair it, and the certification is completed once it is in place.

The question is about the lot, not the building: a property set back from a canal can still have a row of parking spaces that runs along the bank. It is easy to miss, so walk the edge of the lot before the inspection day.

Broward is different

The Broward Board of Rules and Appeals’ current policy asks for no separate parking-lot certificate. In Broward, guardrails and parking garages are items of the structural inspection, and the wiring at parking lots is part of the electrical one. A Broward building does not file Miami-Dade’s parking-lot forms.