ADU Pass
Key Colony Beach
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Key Colony Beach, Monroe County, Florida navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 1 ZIP code.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023) with Monroe County 180 mph wind amendments governs structural review; Monroe ROGO unit allocation gates new ADUs; CCCL setbacks for coastal parcels.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 200 | $4,500 | $89,600 | $94,100 |
| 600 | 600 | $4,500 | $268,800 | $273,300 |
| midpoint | 450 | $4,500 | $201,600 | $206,100 |
| maximum | 700 | $4,500 | $313,600 | $318,100 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-04)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term rental of an ADU is generally permitted; Florida landlord-tenant law (Chapter 83 FS) governs.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Monroe County / Keys cities require STR licensing; minimum-stay rules vary by jurisdiction (Key West: 30+ days outside Old Town; Islamorada / Marathon: 28+ days). § 509.032 FS partial-preemption applies.
- Office rental: with-restrictions Detached office rental to non-resident requires home occupation permit or rezoning.
- Home office: yes Home occupation by owner is permitted with restrictions on signage, customer traffic, and outside employees.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist studio / workshop is a permitted accessory use in residential zones.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Limited urban agriculture is permitted in residential zones; livestock is district-dependent.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU explicitly permitted; § 193.703 FS granny-flat assessment reduction available for qualifying senior-relative additions.
Incentives
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) · 30d connect · $4,500
- Sewer: Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) wastewater / FDOH septic for some parcels · 30d connect · $5,500
- Electric: Keys Energy Services (Lower Keys) / Florida Keys Electric Cooperative (Upper Keys) · 21d connect · $1,800
- Gas: LP / propane (most parcels) · 30d connect · $1,500
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 12mo · typical 18mo · worst 30mo
Modular pathway inspectors are occasional with modular
Financing
State ADU loans:
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Florida Chapter 720 FS does not preempt HOA ADU bans; covenants restricting ADUs are enforceable.
Regulatory overlays (3)
- flood-zone
FEMA AE/VE coastal high-hazard zones; CCCL setbacks; ROGO unit allocation gates new ADUs. - other
Monroe County Keys: design wind speed 180 mph (Lower Keys); Florida Building Code Monroe County amendments govern. - coastal-commission
Monroe County Rate of Growth Ordinance (ROGO) caps annual new dwelling-unit allocations; new ADUs subject to ROGO points and waiting list. Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) setbacks for parcels seaward of the line.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
- Amendment
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Key Colony Beach Code of Ordinances — Accessory Use / Accessory Dwelling Units, adopted 2015-01-01, last amended 2023-01-01
- 2007-07-01 — Florida Statutes § 163.31771 enacted (state-statute)
Enabling statute authorizing local governments to adopt ADU ordinances on parcels zoned for single-family residential use.
Effect: Set the permissive Florida ADU framework still in force in 2026. - 2023-03-29 — Live Local Act (SB 102) signed (state-statute)
Affordability framework with by-right multifamily preemption on commercial / industrial / mixed-use parcels for projects with at least 40% affordable units.
Effect: Indirect ADU effect: shifts secondary-unit pressure toward larger preempted multifamily on non-residential parcels; does not directly compel ADU approvals in single-family zones.
Known issues (1)
- policy-review — ROGO unit-allocation queue can extend project schedules by 12-36+ months and may make new ADUs infeasible on some parcels.
Monroe County — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Monroe County encompasses the Florida Keys (Key West, Marathon, Islamorada, Key Largo, and the long chain of islands from Key Largo to Key West) plus a small sliver of mainland (Everglades National Park / Big Cypress). Population ~82,000 year-round, with seasonal peaks far higher. Monroe is the only 'Area of Critical State Concern' designated county-wide in Florida (under s 380.05 F.S., since 1974) — this designation fundamentally changes land-use governance. The county operates a Rate of Growth Ordinance (ROGO) and Building Permit Allocation System (BPAS) that CAP the total number of new dwelling units that can be permitted in any year via a points-based competitive allocation process. Adopted in 1992 in response to hurricane-evacuation-time-constraint litigation, ROGO allocations are extraordinarily scarce — typically 197 market-rate allocations per year across the entire unincorporated Keys (plus separate allocations for Affordable, Rockland-Key, and other set-asides), versus demand of 1,500+ applications. Wait times for a market-rate ROGO allocation currently exceed 10 years. WITHOUT A ROGO ALLOCATION, NEW DWELLING UNIT CONSTRUCTION IS EFFECTIVELY PROHIBITED — and an ADU counts as a dwelling unit. This makes Monroe County's ADU viability radically different from mainland Florida. The county-wide Monroe County Land Development Code (Chapter 130-139 MCC) codifies ROGO, BPAS, and the county's environmental-protection framework. Each of the five incorporated municipalities (Key West, Marathon, Islamorada, Layton, Key Colony Beach) operates its own ROGO/BPAS allocation (municipality-specific caps) but all are subject to the county-wide Area of Critical State Concern framework and state-administered DEO oversight.
County regulatory overlays
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)
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
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.
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.
ZIP Code
- 33051
Post Office
- 600 W Ocean Dr, 33051