Adu Dispute Could Set Back Florida Live Local Act Expansion

Counting down to a legislative session deadline in two weeks, a new batch of updates to the state’s landmark Live Local Act may hinge on legislators resolving a dispute over provisions included in the bill to expand the scope of the strategic push for housing affordability.​

Local zoning provisions for accessory dwelling units – and their use as short-term rental units – in single-family neighborhoods surfaced as a chokepoint that could scuttle any new Live Local updates this session in Tallahassee.​

“It’s going to get a little spicy here in the next couple of weeks,” Kody Glazer, Florida Housing Coalition’s chief legal and policy officer, told The Builder’s Daily.​

Since passing the Live Local Act in 2023, Florida has been a leader in a widening national charge toward zoning reform and new supply incentives to improve housing affordability. The movement has intensified during the post-COVID-19 pandemic, as Gen Z adults at the leading edge of the cohort try to form new households. Rents and home prices shot up as people and jobs flocked to the state, driving housing demand beyond supply. State leaders responded with an aggressive state-level preemption model that mirrors efforts in other states to unlock commercial land, streamline approvals and expand workforce housing.​

Upwards of 180 Live Local projects comprise a statewide pipeline, according to the coalition. Six have broken ground.​

As in California, Texas and other states, local municipal and county governments have contested the validity of the new state mandates. In response, Florida lawmakers are on their fourth Live Local iteration with legislation colloquially dubbed a “glitch bill.” These bills amend existing policy, clarify legislative intent or close unforeseen loopholes.​

Tightening Florida Live Local Act further

Live Local 4.0 would refine land-use mandates and tax exemptions and add transit-oriented and rural tiers. It would also tighten rules on height, density, parking and ADUs to steer more workforce housing into job centers and transit access points.​

The Florida Starter Homes Act would permit four homes on any residential lot as small as 1,200 square feet that is connected to water and sewer. A transit-oriented development bill would set baseline rules for lots within a half mile of a permanent public transit stop.​

However, there is a new provision that is not part of the original act. The legislation proposes amending the Florida Fair Housing Act to waive sovereign immunity.​

Lawsuit and court ruling prompt immunity language

Language added to the 43-year-old act in 2000 prohibited discrimination in land-use decisions and permitting. That discrimination includes localized objections to project approvals tied to a project’s financing source.​

Affordable housing developer Coral Rock Development Group sued in 2021 after Pompano Beach rejected a proposed affordable townhome development. It argued the city discriminated because of its affordable housing financing.​

A state district appeals court sided with the city in December 2024, ruling that the housing act did not expressly waive sovereign immunity. The Florida Supreme Court declined to take the case last year, creating a need for the legislative change.​

“That’s my baby,” Michael Wohl, a principal of Coral Rock, told The Builder’s Daily. “If you’re going to discriminate against affordable workforce housing, you’re going to get spanked.”​

Wohl said he took it up through the Florida Senate and House hierarchy to get it approved.​

Coral Rock recently broke ground on a 227-unit mixed-income apartment project and a new public library in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood.​

The $85 million development uses a public-private financing structure that includes a $54 million construction loan from Citibank, $15 million from the City of Miami’s Miami Forever Affordable Housing Bond and tax credit equity from Affordable Housing Partners.​

This is the firm’s first Live Local project from the start. Wohl said the firm applied Live Local tax abatements retroactively to two previous developments.​

ADU sticking point is causing problems

Housing advocates have blamed short-term rentals for part of the country’s housing affordability challenge during the pandemic. They argue that short-term rentals took supply of long-term rentals and owner-occupied housing off the market. Local governments around the country responded with laws restricting the rentals.​

The concern has been particularly acute in Florida, given the prevalence of short-term rentals throughout the state. Local governments could not respond because former Gov. Rick Scott signed a law in 2011 that forbade them from banning short-term rentals.​

Lawmakers last year considered allowing ADUs in single-family neighborhoods but fought over whether local governments could prohibit the units from being used as short-term rentals.​

It is the same dispute this year after lawmakers revived the ADU legislation, Glazer said. The Senate passed an ADU bill that allows local governments to ban their use as short-term rentals. The House version does not have the same language.​

Glazer said how that debate shakes out could decide whether any of Live Local 4.0 passes, since it is all tied together.