Fort Lauderdale — city ADU rules and incentives

ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions

Statewith-restrictions (Florida accessory-dwelling framework)

Countyallowed (Broward County unincorporated zoning)

Cityallowed (City of Fort Lauderdale Municipal / Zoning Code — Accessory Dwelling Units)

Florida partially preempts local ADU restrictions; cities retain authority over design and setbacks. Fort Lauderdale permits ADUs subject to local conditions per its zoning ordinance.

City cost envelope

$209,400 all-in for a 575 sqft ADU (permit + build). Midpoint scenario.

Permit fee bundle: $2,400.

City viability (selected uses)

Long-term rentalyes

Short-term rentalwith-restrictions

Home officeyes

Relative supportyes

Broward County — county ADU rules and overlays

County ADU ordinance

Broward County is a home-rule charter county covering 31 incorporated municipalities plus a small residual unincorporated area (<1% of population after the 1999-2010 municipal-services-taxing-unit consolidation). The Broward County Code of Ordinances (Chapter 39, Zoning) and the Broward County Land Development Code together regulate unincorporated parcels directly, and the county's Planning Council (via the Broward County Land Use Plan / BCLUP) imposes a county-wide 'minimum-density' floor on residential zoning that applies to every municipality — a municipality cannot zone a parcel below the county-plan density without Planning Council amendment. The county has NOT adopted a standalone countywide ADU ordinance preempting municipal ADU rules; ADU regulation is municipal in Broward, with each of the 31 cities setting its own rules (some explicit: Fort Lauderdale ULDR sec. 47-18.31 accessory dwelling units; Hollywood Code of Ordinances Chapter 152; Pompano Beach Ch. 155; others silent / single-family-only). The county does however administer county-wide building-code amendments (Broward County amendments to the Florida Building Code, effective via the Broward County Board of Rules & Appeals) that apply to ADU construction in every municipality.

County regulatory overlays

Broward County administers or co-administers several county-wide overlay regimes that cut across all 31 municipalities and bear materially on ADU siting: (1) FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas — effectively the entire coastal and eastern portion of the county, with nearly every parcel east of I-95 in-SFHA; (2) county-wide Florida Building Code amendments via the Broward County Board of Rules & Appeals, including High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) standards shared with Miami-Dade; (3) the Broward County Climate Change Action Plan sea-level-rise overlay and the Compact-adopted 2060/2100 SLR projections that are increasingly referenced in municipal permitting freeboard; (4) airport noise / AICUZ overlays around Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) and North Perry Airport; (5) the Broward County Tree Preservation Ordinance (Ch. 27 Article XV) which applies county-wide; and (6) the Everglades / Conservation Area boundary on the west side of the county (Water Conservation Area 2 / 3), enforced jointly by SFWMD and county growth management.

County permitting (unincorporated parcels)

Broward County's unincorporated area is residual — less than 1% of county population — following the statutory municipal-services consolidation that annexed almost all remaining unincorporated pockets into neighboring cities between 1999 and 2010. The few remaining unincorporated parcels are administered by the Broward County Environmental Protection & Growth Management Department — specifically the Permitting, Licensing, and Consumer Protection Division for building permits, and the Environmental Protection & Community Resilience Division for environmental review. ADU construction in unincorporated Broward follows Chapter 39 (county zoning) plus the Florida Building Code as amended by the Broward County Board of Rules & Appeals. The county's Broward One-Stop online portal (ePermits) handles application intake, inspections, and certificate-of-occupancy issuance.

Florida state — ADU law and programs

State ADU law

Florida does NOT currently have a statewide ADU preemption law in effect. Florida Statutes § 163.31771 (enacted 2004, last amended 2020) is permissive — it authorizes local governments to adopt ADU ordinances but does not require them to. ADU rules are therefore set municipality-by-municipality: Miami-Dade, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and a growing set of Florida cities have their own ordinances; many smaller counties and cities still prohibit or restrict ADUs by default. A preemption bill (SB 48 / HB 313) is pending in the 2026 legislative session and is likely to pass given that its 2025 predecessor cleared the Senate 37-0 and House 97-10 before dying on a procedural amendment dispute.

Florida Statutes § 163.31771 — Accessory dwelling units — Permissive (not mandatory) statute. Defines an ADU as 'an ancillary or secondary living unit, that has a separate kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping area, existing either within the same structure, or on the same lot, as the primary dwelling unit.' Authorizes — but does not require — local governments to adopt ordinances allowing ADUs in single-family residential zones. Contains no size caps, no owner-occupancy rules, no HOA preemption. All substantive rulemaking is local.

State financing programs

Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC) does not operate an ADU-specific state loan or grant program. FHFC's primary affordable-housing lever at the ADU tier is the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP), which distributes state documentary-stamp-tax revenue to all 67 counties and 52 entitlement cities for locally-administered housing programs — some of which may fund ADU construction at the local level (notably Orange County's Affordable ADU Loan Program, run through the Orange County Housing Finance Trust). FHFC's FL Assist down-payment programs and HFA Preferred / HFA Advantage conventional loans apply to ADU-eligible primary residences but do not single out ADUs. Proposed CS/SB 1440 would create a state property-tax exemption of up to 100% of assessed value for an ADU rented at affordable rates.

State housing programs

Florida does not currently operate a statewide pre-approved ADU plan catalog (unlike California or Washington). State-level ADU implementation is driven by (a) the permissive § 163.31771 which lets willing jurisdictions adopt ordinances, (b) SHIP pass-through funding to local ADU programs (Orange County's Affordable ADU Loan Program is the model), and (c) the affordable-housing property-tax exemption under the Live Local Act (SB 102 / SB 328). The Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) — now reorganized as the Department of Commerce — provides technical assistance to local governments but no statewide ADU-specific mandate or program. Major counties (Miami-Dade, Orange, Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Broward) have published their own ADU ordinances and guidance documents.

Federal (United States) — ADU-relevant rules and programs

Federal ADU law

The United States has no federal statute that directly regulates accessory dwelling unit entitlement or design. Land-use authority over ADUs resides with states and local governments under the traditional police power. Federal engagement is limited to financing (Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA/USDA), flood insurance (FEMA/NFIP), and discretionary housing programs (HUD), which are recorded in sibling sections of this file.

Federal financing programs

Federal housing-finance agencies and GSEs set nationwide underwriting rules that govern whether an ADU can be financed, appraised, and counted toward mortgage qualifying income. The relevant actors are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA (HUD), VA, and USDA Rural Development.

Federal tax credits

There is no ADU-specific federal tax credit. ADUs may incidentally qualify for existing federal energy-efficiency and clean-energy tax credits when the ADU construction includes qualifying measures.

Federal housing programs

HUD administers several discretionary programs that can fund ADU-related activity at the grantee's election, but none is an ADU-specific program.

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