Live Local Act
Does my property qualify?
There is no way to answer that from a map. But there is a reliable order to work through it in — and most parcels rule themselves in or out within the first three questions.
Current as of August 2026
The Live Local Act requires local governments to approve certain residential and mixed-use development administratively — without a rezoning, a public hearing, or a planning board vote — where the project commits a share of its units as affordable housing. In exchange, local limits on density, floor area ratio, and height give way.
What follows is how to screen a specific parcel. It is not a determination, and no honest one can be made from a checklist. But working the questions in this order will tell you quickly whether a site is worth taking further — and roughly what it might support if it is.
Start with the zoning
This is the gate. If the answer to the first question is no, nothing after it matters.
Is the parcel zoned commercial, industrial, or mixed use?
The Act reaches areas zoned for commercial, industrial, or mixed use — and the commercially or industrially permitted portions of a flexibly zoned area such as a planned unit development. Residentially zoned land is not eligible. Note that what matters is what the zoning permits by right, not what the category is called.
§ 166.04151(7)(a) · § 125.01055(7)(a)
Is the site government-owned or religious-institution land?
The 2026 amendments extended eligibility to certain property owned by a county, municipality, or school district, and to parcels over three acres owned by a religious institution with an active house of worship. These are newer categories and worth checking if the conventional zoning answer was no.
Ch. 2026-179, Laws of Fla.
If you are contemplating mixed use, can at least 65% of total square footage be residential?
Mixed-use projects must be at least 65% residential by square footage. Separately, the local government cannot require more than 10% to be non-residential — a useful ceiling to know when a planner suggests otherwise.
§ 166.04151(7)(a)
Then the affordability commitment
This is where most projects are actually decided, and where the common shorthand misleads people.
Can at least 40% of the residential units be rental units?
The requirement reaches rental units specifically. It does not apply to for-sale product, which rules out a straightforward condominium approach to the affordable component.
§ 166.04151(7)(a)
Can that commitment be held for at least 30 years?
Thirty years is a long time to encumber a rental component. It survives your ownership, so it has to work for a buyer and a lender, not only for you.
§ 166.04151(7)(a)
Have you tested the 30% cost cap using real insurance quotes for this site?
Affordability is not an income threshold — it is a cap on total monthly housing cost, and that cost expressly includes taxes, insurance, and utilities. On the coast, windstorm and flood premiums come out of the same ceiling as rent. This is frequently the question that decides whether a project works here, and it is worth answering with actual quotes rather than assumptions.
§ 420.0004(3)
Question three is the one most often answered wrong, because the widely repeated version of the rule — “40% at 120% of area median income” — is not what the statute says. What “affordable” actually means →
Work out what the site could support
These are not questions about your parcel's own zoning. Each one measures against something else — which is the part that surprises people, and the part that creates value.
What is the tallest commercial or residential building allowed within one mile?
Height cannot be restricted below the highest currently allowed — or allowed on 1 July 2023 — for a commercial or residential building anywhere in the jurisdiction within a mile, or three stories, whichever is higher. Your own parcel's height limit is not the measure.
§ 166.04151(7)(d)1
What is the highest density allowed anywhere in the jurisdiction where residential is permitted?
Density cannot be restricted below that figure, or the figure allowed on 1 July 2023 — whichever is least restrictive. Again, measured jurisdiction-wide rather than parcel-specific.
§ 166.04151(7)(b)
What is the highest floor area ratio allowed — and what is 150% of it?
Floor area ratio cannot be restricted below 150% of the highest allowed. Note that FAR here is defined to include floor lot ratio and lot coverage, so the uplift may reach more than one constraint.
§ 166.04151(7)(c)
Has anyone told you the height is available but the setbacks make it unbuildable?
That route closed on 1 July 2026. A local government may no longer restrict an authorised height through other dimensional means, including setbacks or stepbacks by height, or require setbacks more restrictive than the minimum in the proposed development. If a site was evaluated before that date, the answer may have changed.
Ch. 2026-179, Laws of Fla.
Check the exclusions
Any one of these can limit or defeat an otherwise eligible project. They are worth checking early rather than after design work.
Is any part of the parcel within a quarter mile of a military installation?
If so, the project may not be administratively approved. This is a hard exclusion rather than a limit.
§ 166.04151(7)(e)1
Is the parcel adjacent, on two or more sides, to single-family zoning within a development of 25 or more contiguous homes?
If so, height may be limited — to 150% of the tallest adjacent building, the highest allowed, or three stories, whichever is higher, and capped at ten stories. Note that 'adjacent' means sharing more than one point of a property line and excludes parcels separated by a public road or a body of water, which matters more than it sounds on a waterfront site.
§ 166.04151(7)(d)2
Is there a contributing or individually listed historic structure on the parcel?
Height is then measured within three-quarters of a mile rather than one mile, and architectural design regulations may be applied administratively — though they cannot be used to affect height, floor area ratio, or density.
§ 166.04151(7)(d)3 · (7)(e)3
Are you assembling parcels separated by a strip of land used for pedestrian access?
A 2026 provision confirms that a development may not be treated as excluding an assemblage of parcels under common ownership or control separated by no more than fifteen feet of land limited to public pedestrian access. This provision expires 1 July 2030.
Ch. 2026-179, Laws of Fla.
Then read what your local government published
A step almost everyone skips, and the statute requires it to exist.
Have you read the jurisdiction's administrative approval policy?
Every municipality is required to maintain on its website a policy containing the procedures and expectations for administrative approval under this subsection. Counties are under the parallel requirement. It is the single most useful document for a specific parcel, and it is public.
§ 166.04151(7)(e)1
Have you confirmed the project still satisfies the rest of the local regulations?
Live Local suspends four things — density, floor area ratio, height, and land use. Everything else in the land development regulations still applies, and the statute expressly names setbacks and parking. It is not a general exemption from local regulation, and treating it as one is a common and expensive misreading.
§ 166.04151(7)(e)1
Two things worth knowing before you start
This is a window, not a permanent feature. The subsection expires 1 October 2033. A development authorised under it is treated as a conforming use even after expiration — so an approved project is not stranded — but the opportunity to use the statute has an end date.
The statute has teeth. A civil action against a local government for violating the subsection must be given priority over other pending cases, and the court must award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the prevailing party, capped at $250,000. That is unusual, and it is worth understanding before the first meeting rather than after a refusal.
One practical caution: the codified text of both sections published online still carries a history note ending at chapter 2025-172, and does not yet incorporate the 2026 amendments. The session law has to be read alongside it.
These are screening questions, current as of August 2026, offered as general information. They are not legal advice and answering them is not a determination that any property qualifies. Eligibility depends on the statute as amended, the local government’s implementing regulations, and facts specific to the site. Do not act on this page without advice on your own circumstances.
Worth a look at a specific parcel?
If a site came through these questions without a clear no, the next step is reading the jurisdiction's policy against the parcel's actual zoning — and getting insurance numbers early enough to matter.