Plano Solar Permit Drawings

Avila Solar Drafting prepares the drawings and documents a Plano solar permit filing needs. Plano is the most procedurally transparent city in this metro: it has written and published its own third-party review procedure under Texas SB 1202, it prints a plan-review turnaround goal, and it publishes the exact list an inspector works from at meter release. Very little about permitting here has to be guessed at, which is unusual and worth using.

Key takeaways

• Plano has a written SB 1202 procedure — form FM624RY063, dated August 20, 2025 — naming who may perform third-party review and what staff must do with it.
• Its text is explicit: “The City accepts any software review, including but not limited to SolarAPP+.” Plano is not a SolarAPP+ city; it accepts SolarAPP+ output through the third-party route.
• Three acceptable reviewer credentials: a TDLR-licensed electrician, an ICC-certified inspector, or a TBPELS-licensed professional engineer — verified, or the submittal is rejected.
• Full in-house city review remains available as an alternative, with a published residential goal of 5 working days for comments.
• We draw the permit set. You file it. Contractor registration and the sub-contractor validation sheet stay on your side.

What we do, and what stays with you

Avila Solar Drafting does not pull permits, file applications, act as a permit runner or expedite anything. We produce the permit design — the drawings, calculations and supporting documents that make a filing reviewable. Filing stays with you, and Plano puts real structure around who may file: contractor registration is required, and the city uses a sub-contractor validation sheet as part of the process. Our national solar permit design page covers how the boundary works in every market we draw for.

Plano’s third-party review procedure, in its own words

Texas SB 1202, codified at Local Government Code §247.0025 and effective September 1, 2025, allows a qualified third-party professional to perform the document review and inspection for a home backup power installation. Most Texas cities have said nothing about how they will operate it. Plano wrote a procedure and published it — “Home Backup Power Installations Review and Inspection Procedure,” form FM624RY063, dated August 20, 2025.

What it establishes:

• Who may review. Three credentials are acceptable — an electrician licensed by TDLR, an ICC-certified inspector, or a professional engineer licensed by TBPELS.
• Verification is mandatory. Staff are directed to verify the reviewer’s credential and to reject the submittal if it cannot be verified. A third-party letter from someone whose licence does not check out is worse than no letter.
• The clock. The procedure restates the statutory requirement that the permit be issued no later than the third business day after the city receives the notice.
• Software review is accepted. Verbatim: “The City accepts any software review, including but not limited to SolarAPP+.”
• The conventional route is still open. The procedure preserves full in-house city review as an alternative — the third-party path is a choice, not a replacement.

One distinction worth holding onto, because it gets flattened constantly in marketing copy: Plano does not run a SolarAPP+ portal. There is no instant-permit product here. What Plano does is accept software-generated review output through a statutory third-party pathway, with credential verification in front of it. That is a materially different thing, and the three-business-day figure is an issuance deadline that runs from a compliant notice — not a review turnaround.

If you also work Irving, the contrast is instructive: Irving runs an actual SolarAPP+ route with a 38 kW ceiling and a portal upload step, which is covered on our Irving permit design page.

The nine-item meter release list

This is the most immediately usable thing Plano publishes, and almost nobody writing about Plano solar mentions it. The city sets out the items checked at meter release, each tied to an NEC article:

• Outside emergency disconnect — Art. 230.85
• Surge protective device — Art. 230.67
• Two ground rods — Art. 250.53(A)(3)
• Working space, 36 inches deep and 30 inches wide — Art. 110.26
• Breaker height limit of 6 feet 7 inches — Art. 240.24
• Bonding bushing — Art. 250.92(B)(4)
• Water pipe bond — Art. 250.53(D)
• Main bonding jumper — Art. 250.28

Most of that belongs on the single-line and the site plan rather than being resolved in the field, and a set that already shows it does not get held at meter release. Where a project includes storage, Plano also publishes a backup battery checklist calling for two copies of the one-line, manufacturer documentation and a site plan showing placement — the design side of which is covered on our Plano design and drafting page.

How long, and what it costs at the counter

Plano publishes a plan review turnaround goal of 5 working days for comments on residential work, in its customer guide revised October 8, 2024. Three qualifiers travel with that number and we would rather state them than bury them: it is a goal, it is for comments rather than approval, and it is residential generally rather than solar-specific. It is still a published figure, which puts Plano in a very small group in this metro.

On fees, the city’s fee schedule carries a named line for residential photovoltaic work, and plan review is taken as a 65% non-refundable deposit. We are not going to quote you a permit price, because the fee schedule figure and the figure in the procedure document do not agree — confirm the current amount with Building Inspections rather than budgeting from anyone’s website, ours included. A practical note on the portal: Plano’s eTRAKiT system has been showing outages, so check it is up before planning a filing around it.

Our own commitment is the part we control: 2–3 business days for a standard set, 1–2 on Fast Roof, 1 business day with a Roof Order or EagleView XML, and comment responses free inside the six-month revision window. Broader rejection patterns are in why permits get rejected.

Plano Solar Permit Design FAQs

Start a Plano permit package

Plano publishes more about its own process than any of its neighbours, which means there is very little excuse for a set that misses something. We draw to the published inspection list and the adopted cycle, and respond to comments free for six months.

Or call 971-410-0655 to check a jurisdiction before you submit. Avila Solar Drafting LLC, 11995 SW Walker Rd, Beaverton, Oregon · 971-410-0655 · info@avilasolar.com.