ADU Pass
Lady Lake
Sumter County portion
Also in: Lake County · No County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Lady Lake, Sumter County, Florida navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 2 ZIP codes.
Map
Sumter County — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Sumter County regulates accessory dwelling units on parcels in unincorporated Sumter through the Sumter County Land Development Code (LDC), administered by the Sumter County Development Services Department. Florida has no statewide ADU preemption; § 163.31771 Florida Statutes authorizes (but does not require) local governments to adopt ADU ordinances, and Sumter's ADU allowances therefore arise entirely from local zoning. Pending state legislation SB 48 / HB 313 (2026 session) would, if enacted, impose a by-right ADU floor in single-family zones statewide with a December 1, 2026 local-ordinance deadline — this county file will require refresh if those bills pass.
State-floor overlay: No Florida statewide ADU preemption floor exists as of April 2026. § 163.31771 FS is permissive only. SB 48 / HB 313 (2026 session) is the active preemption bill — tracks would require by-right ADUs in single-family zones with a local-ordinance compliance deadline of December 1, 2026 if enacted. Until enactment, Sumter retains full discretion subject to general Community Planning Act (Ch. 163 Part II) consistency requirements.
County regulatory overlays
Sumter County administers flood-hazard and wellhead-protection overlays that cut across jurisdictions. The county is an inland Central Florida county with significant karst topography (sinkhole risk) and lies partly within the Withlacoochee River basin and several Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) surface-water management zones. Unlike coastal Florida counties, Sumter has no coastal-high-hazard or NFIP VE-zone exposure, but AE flood zones along the Withlacoochee and along inland lakes materially affect ADU siting on riparian parcels.
- FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) — Sumter participates in the National Flood Insurance Program. Parcels mapped in Zone A or AE (primarily along the Withlacoochee River, Lake Panasoffkee, and smaller lake basins) require finished floors elevated to or above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) plus the county's adopted freeboard, flood vents on enclosed areas below BFE, and flood-resistant materials. An ADU proposed in an SFHA must meet these standards independently of the primary dwelling.
- Sinkhole / Karst Hazard Area — Sumter lies within Florida's karst belt. While not a formal overlay, soil-stability review is a practical requirement for new residential construction on parcels with historical sinkhole activity or low-density cover sediments. A geotechnical report may be required at building-permit review and materially affects foundation design and cost for an ADU.
- Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) Wellhead Protection — Parcels within designated wellhead-protection zones face enhanced septic-system siting review and may be required to connect to central sewer where available. Affects ADU bedroom counts on septic-served parcels near municipal water-supply wells.
- Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) — Florida adopted WUI provisions in the 8th Edition (2023) FBC. Sumter's large tracts of pine-flatwoods and palmetto-scrub abutting residential development are WUI-eligible, though county-level hazard mapping is less formalized than in western states. Practical effect on ADUs is limited today but may expand as insurers under Citizens Property Insurance tighten underwriting on WUI-adjacent structures.
- The Villages PUD / DRI overlay — The Villages operates under a series of DRI development orders and a master PUD that preempt standard LDC use tables with community-specific entitlements. ADU / guest-quarter rights inside The Villages are therefore determined by the PUD and the community's CC&Rs rather than Sumter's base zoning. This overlay is the single largest driver of ADU prohibition in Sumter County by parcel count.
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
Permits for ADUs (typically treated as accessory structures or guest quarters in Sumter's zoning vocabulary) on parcels in unincorporated Sumter County are issued by the Sumter County Development Services Department, which combines planning review (zoning, concurrency, flood-zone) and building review (Florida Building Code) under one intake. Incorporated jurisdictions inside Sumter (Bushnell, Center Hill, Coleman, Webster, Wildwood) handle their own permits and are NOT covered by this unincorporated record. The Villages, although unincorporated, adds HOA architectural-review approval as a practical prerequisite before Sumter will accept an ADU application — even where Sumter's LDC would allow the unit, covenant review stands in the way.
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 Codes
- 32162
- 32163
Post Office
- 850 Teague Trl, 32159