Monroe County

Unincorporated Monroe County covers most of the Keys outside the five incorporated municipalities (Key West, Marathon, Islamorada, Layton, Key Colony Beach) plus the mainland portion (Everglades/Big Cypress). Permitting is administered by the Monroe County Building Department and Planning & Environmental Resources Department at county offices in Marathon and Key West. Building-permit issuance is conditional on ROGO allocation — applicants without an allocation cannot proceed regardless of site readiness. Monroe County's ePermits portal (eBuild) handles the technical building-permit application, but the ROGO application process is separate and competitive. The county also administers the NFIP floodplain-development permit (essentially every Keys parcel is in SFHA) and a county-wide tier-system habitat-protection overlay (Tier 1, 2, 3, 3A) that restricts clearing in sensitive habitat.

Monroe County property assessment is performed by the Monroe County Property Appraiser, an elected constitutional officer operating out of Key West with field offices in Marathon and Plantation Key. The appraiser maintains parcel records for all ~55,000 parcels in the county. Standard Florida rules apply: Save Our Homes (F.S. 193.155) 3% homestead cap, 10% non-homestead-residential cap (F.S. 193.1554), new-construction carve-out, agricultural classification (rarely used in the Keys). Monroe County property values are unusually high — median single-family home values $800k-$1.5M+ across most of the Keys, $2M+ in prime Key West and Upper Keys. ADU addition, where feasible (extremely rare absent ROGO), captures at full just value in the year of completion — which can be a substantial annual tax increment given Keys valuations.

Assessment policy: Standard Florida new-construction assessment; subsequent 3% / 10% cap. Critical-state-concern overlay does not alter assessment methodology directly. Separate ROGO-exemption valuation considerations apply to parcels holding development rights (ROGO exemptions, buildable lots) — these parcels carry a separate 'development-right-free' valuation element that can be sold or transferred. The appraiser tracks ROGO-exempt status as a parcel attribute.

Monroe County's overlay landscape is arguably the most restrictive in Florida and perhaps the United States: (1) Area of Critical State Concern (s 380.05 F.S., since 1974) — county-wide state oversight overlay that cannot be preempted by local action; (2) ROGO / BPAS Rate of Growth Ordinance — caps new dwelling units county-wide via competitive allocation; (3) FEMA SFHAs — essentially every buildable parcel in the Keys is in Zone AE or VE with BFE 8-12 ft; (4) Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary — NOAA-managed sanctuary covering waters surrounding the Keys, regulates docks, seawalls, and near-shore work; (5) Tier-system habitat overlay — county-wide classification restricting clearing and ROGO allocation by tier; (6) John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park / Key Largo, Looe Key, and multiple National Wildlife Refuges (Great White Heron NWR, Key Deer NWR, Crocodile Lake NWR) — federal-wildlife and state-park overlays; (7) US-1 / Overseas Highway corridor — hurricane-evacuation-time constraint that is the legal basis for ROGO itself, subject to continual recalculation; (8) Florida Building Code HVHZ (High-Velocity Hurricane Zone) applies to all of Monroe — stringent wind-design, opening-protection, and product-approval rules at 180+ mph design wind speeds.

• Area of Critical State Concern (ACSC) designation
• ROGO / BPAS Rate of Growth Ordinance
• FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas — essentially county-wide Zone AE / VE
• Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS)
• Tier-System Habitat Overlay
• Florida Building Code HVHZ (High-Velocity Hurricane Zone)
• Federal Wildlife Refuges (Key Deer NWR, Great White Heron NWR, Crocodile Lake NWR)