Captiva

Lee County regulates accessory dwelling units on parcels in the unincorporated county through the Lee County Land Development Code (LDC), Chapter 34 (Zoning), which addresses 'guest houses' and 'accessory living quarters' rather than 'ADUs' by that specific term. Unlike statewide-preemption states such as California, Florida has no mandatory statewide ADU preemption: § 163.31771 Fla. Stat. is permissive only and does not force local governments to allow ADUs. Lee County's ordinance therefore represents the county's own policy choice. As of 2026-04-20, Lee County permits one accessory living quarters / guest house per single-family parcel in most residential zoning districts (RS-1, RS-2, RS-3, RS-5, RS-6) subject to size caps (typically maximum 50% of primary dwelling or 1,000 sqft, whichever is less), height limits (one story in lower-density districts), setback conformance to the base zone, and the requirement that the guest house share utilities with the primary structure in most cases. Short-term rental of accessory living quarters is subject to the county's separate vacation-rental ordinance and in coastal areas to additional overlay regulation. Hurricane Ian (Sept. 2022) devastated the Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Estero, and Bonita Springs waterfront; post-Ian rebuild ordinances loosened some accessory-structure reconstruction requirements for Ian-damaged parcels through temporary emergency orders that have since rolled off. Pending 2026 state legislation (SB 48 / HB 313) would, if enacted, preempt local bans of ADUs in single-family zones and cap local size limits at no less than 1,000 sqft — Lee County's current 1,000-sqft effective cap already conforms to the proposed state floor, so SB 48 / HB 313 would not force a material ordinance rewrite here even if enacted.

• Lee County Land Development Code, Chapter 34 — Zoning (guest houses / accessory living quarters provisions)
• Lee County Comprehensive Plan (Lee Plan) — Future Land Use Element
• Lee County Board of County Commissioners — agenda archive

State-floor overlay: Florida has no mandatory statewide ADU preemption. § 163.31771 Fla. Stat. is a permissive authorization — it allows local governments to adopt ordinances permitting ADUs but does not require them to do so. Pending 2026-session bills SB 48 and HB 313 would preempt outright bans of ADUs in single-family zones, preempt sub-1,000-sqft maximum caps, and preempt blanket owner-occupancy requirements if enacted by December 1, 2026; their 2025 predecessor (SB 184 / HB 59) cleared the Senate 37-0 and the House 97-10 before dying on an unrelated procedural amendment dispute. Lee County's current guest-house / accessory-living-quarters framework already permits one accessory unit per single-family lot with an effective 1,000-sqft cap, so the pending state floor would not force a major rewrite here. The Live Local Act (SB 102 2023 + SB 328 2024) applies to commercial, industrial, and mixed-use parcels — not single-family ADUs — but its affordable-housing ad valorem property-tax exemption can apply to ADUs rented to income-eligible tenants under the FHFC SAIL / SHIP framework. Florida HOA (Ch. 720), condominium (Ch. 718), and cooperative (Ch. 719) statutes do NOT preempt association-level ADU restrictions: a recorded HOA declaration can bar guest houses entirely regardless of county zoning, and Lee County has many planned communities (Gateway, Verandah, Miromar Lakes, Pelican Preserve, Bonita Bay) where HOA rules are the binding constraint.

Lee County administers or co-administers several overlay regimes that materially affect ADU siting on unincorporated parcels: (1) FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) covering a very large fraction of the county including essentially all coastal and near-coastal unincorporated areas, barrier islands (Sanibel, Captiva — incorporated), and extensive riverine flood zones along the Caloosahatchee River, Orange River, and Estero River; Lee County is a CRS Class 5 community with a 1-foot freeboard requirement above BFE; (2) Florida Building Code High-Velocity Hurricane Zone / Wind Borne Debris Region — all of Lee County is in the Wind Borne Debris Region (WBDR) requiring impact-rated glazing or protective coverings on all openings and 170 mph ultimate wind-load design on barrier-island and immediate coastal parcels; (3) Coastal High Hazard Area (CHHA) as defined under the Lee Plan limiting intensification in surge-exposed areas; (4) county-administered Density Reduction / Groundwater Resource (DRGR) overlay protecting aquifer recharge in eastern Lee County (most of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed area), which caps density to 1 dwelling unit per 10 acres in most DRGR parcels and may foreclose a guest house on parcels already at the density cap; (5) Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) jurisdiction seaward of which FDEP permit is required for any structure; (6) Florida Forest Service Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) designations for rural eastern Lee County; and (7) Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is the insurer of last resort for most coastal Lee County parcels post-Ian with private-market carriers having substantially reduced coastal writings — this is not an overlay in the zoning sense but drives an insurance-feasibility overlay that effectively gates ADU economics. Post-Hurricane Ian (Sept 2022, Cat 4 at landfall near Cayo Costa), FEMA issued revised Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) adjusting BFEs upward on coastal and near-coastal segments.

• FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) — National Flood Insurance Program (Lee County CRS Class 5) — Lee County administers FEMA NFIP floodplain regulations for unincorporated parcels. Very large portions of the unincorporated county are in AE, VE, AO, or shaded-X zones — essentially all of Iona-McGregor, Pine Island (Bokeelia, St. James City, Pineland), Fort Myers Shores, North Fort Myers riverfront, and the Caloosahatchee / Orange / Estero River corridors. Lee County has a 1-foot freeboard requirement above Base Flood Elevation (§ 6-161 LDC). Accessory living quarters in an SFHA require lowest-floor elevation to BFE + 1 ft (to the top of the lowest finished floor), flood vents on enclosures below BFE, anchoring against flotation / collapse / lateral movement, and a post-construction FEMA Elevation Certificate. V-zone structures must also be on pilings or columns with breakaway walls. Post-Hurricane Ian, FEMA issued map revisions for Lee County adjusting BFEs upward along much of the coastal and immediate inland areas; owners planning new construction should confirm the currently-effective FIRM panel and BFE before design. Lee County is a CRS Class 5 community, giving unincorporated NFIP-policyholders a 25% flood-insurance premium discount.
• Florida Building Code Wind Borne Debris Region (WBDR) / High-Velocity Hurricane Zone-adjacent standards — All of Lee County is in the Wind Borne Debris Region. Structures must be designed to resist ultimate design wind speeds ranging from 150 mph inland to 170 mph on the barrier islands and immediate coastal parcels (ASCE 7-22 map values). All openings must be protected either by impact-rated glazing (tested to ASTM E1886 / E1996 Large Missile Level D) or by coded-compliant shutters. Garage doors in particular must be impact-rated. Roof decking attachment must meet the enhanced fastening schedule. Post-Ian, insurance carriers commonly require OIR-1802 wind-mitigation inspection reports confirming compliance with hip-roof geometry, secondary water resistance, and opening protection — the premium difference between compliant and non-compliant accessory structures can exceed 3x. Barrier-island accessory structures (though barrier islands like Sanibel and Captiva are incorporated / unincorporated blend) face the highest wind-load and the strictest compliance checks.
• Coastal High Hazard Area (CHHA) — Lee Plan intensification limits — The CHHA is defined as the area inundated by the Category 1 hurricane storm surge zone plus adjacent land subject to high-velocity wave action. Lee Plan policies restrict density intensification in the CHHA, though existing entitlements are generally preserved. An accessory living quarter on a parcel already built to the underlying-zoning density cap may be denied in the CHHA under the Lee Plan's intensification-restraint policies even where the zoning district would otherwise allow it. The CHHA covers most of Iona-McGregor, Pine Island, Buckingham along waterfront, Fort Myers Shores riverfront, and much of the post-Ian-affected coastal fringe. The Lee Plan is implemented through the LDC; applicants should consult both.
• Density Reduction / Groundwater Resource (DRGR) Overlay — The DRGR overlay protects the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed and aquifer-recharge areas in eastern Lee County, covering a large swath east of I-75 and south of State Road 82. DRGR parcels are capped at 1 dwelling unit per 10 acres (with clustering options). Because an accessory living quarter / guest house with independent cooking facilities can be classified as a second dwelling for density purposes, DRGR parcels already at the 1/10-acre density cap cannot add a guest house that would exceed the cap — the guest house must either (a) not have independent cooking (thus remaining an ancillary non-dwelling), (b) consume the parent parcel's unused density, or (c) be on a parcel large enough for both units at the 1/10 density. The DRGR overlay is not a zoning district by itself but operates through Lee Plan policies that override the underlying zoning district's density schedule.
• Florida Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) — FDEP jurisdiction — Seaward of the CCCL (established by FDEP along Lee County's Gulf and bay shorelines), any structure requires a CCCL permit from FDEP in addition to county building approval. The CCCL runs along the Gulf-facing shorelines of the incorporated barrier islands (Sanibel, Captiva, Fort Myers Beach) and along isolated unincorporated Gulf-facing and bay-facing segments. Accessory living quarters seaward of the CCCL must meet FDEP's siting, elevation, and structural-design standards in addition to Florida Building Code and Lee County LDC. CCCL permit processing typically adds 60-120 days to the overall permit timeline.
• Florida Forest Service WUI / Firewise designations — eastern Lee County — Eastern rural Lee County (Alva, Buckingham, unincorporated Estero east of I-75, Corkscrew-ecosystem interior) is in an elevated wildland-urban interface risk corridor, though Florida does not maintain the equivalent of California's VHFHSZ regulatory regime. Florida Forest Service promotes Firewise USA voluntary certifications and provides technical advice on defensible space. The county's LDC does not mandate WUI-specific construction standards equivalent to California Building Code Chapter 7A — Florida Building Code applies uniformly without a WUI-specific chapter — but insurers may require defensible-space mitigations in rural-forest-adjacent sites. Lehigh Acres, despite its pre-platted density, has a substantial undeveloped-lot fire-load that drives occasional grass / brush fires.

Lee County Department of Community Development (DCD) is the combined planning / zoning / building / floodplain / environmental permit authority for parcels in the unincorporated county. Unincorporated Lee County covers approximately 785 square miles (about 62% of the county's total 1,263 sqmi land area) and includes sizable unincorporated communities — Lehigh Acres (the largest, ~130,000 pop., essentially a pre-platted 1950s subdivision with no municipality), North Fort Myers, Buckingham, Alva, Fort Myers Shores, Iona-McGregor, San Carlos Park, Estero unincorporated remnants, Bonita Springs unincorporated remnants, and Pine Island (Bokeelia, St. James City, Pineland). The six incorporated municipalities (Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Estero) permit their own ADUs independently under their own codes. DCD combines zoning review, building plan review (Florida Building Code 8th Edition as amended), floodplain management (Lee County administers FEMA NFIP for unincorporated parcels and is a CRS Class 5 community), environmental review under the Lee Plan, and fire-district referral. Post-Hurricane Ian, DCD has been operating under sustained permit-volume pressure with elevated backlogs on coastal rebuilds, elevation certificates, and wind-mitigation plan reviews; this pressure extends to ADU permits on coastal and near-coastal parcels and drives longer-than-typical review cycles in Iona-McGregor, Pine Island, and the Estero/Bonita Springs unincorporated fringe.