Florida lawmakers, in their zeal to boost affordable housing to accommodate the state’s surging population, have come up with a one-size-fits-all approach that will have dire consequences for crowded urban areas like Fort Lauderdale, critics say.
The fallout from the Live Local Act could get even worse if two new bills currently under consideration become law, Fort Lauderdale observers claim.
One bill would make it possible for a Live Local developer to build workforce housing on property owned by the county, municipalities and school districts. Another designed to escalate the construction of starter homes across the state could transform single-family neighborhoods into hodgepodge communities with a mix of townhomes, duplexes and zero-lot-line housing.
The Live Local Act has already drawn criticism throughout the state because it allows developers to get projects approved by administrative staff, completely bypassing public hearings that give residents a chance to speak before a commission vote. With Live Local, there is no commission vote.
Senate Bill 1548, sponsored by State Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami, would expand the reach of Live Local from areas zoned for commercial, industrial or mixed use to property owned by the county, cities and school districts if at least 40% of the residential units qualify as workforce housing. It would also prohibit cities from restricting the height of a Live Local project through setback requirements.
Fans of the bill say it enables local governments, working in conjunction with Live Local developers, to bypass processes otherwise required to develop affordable housing on property that’s typically off-limits.
Critics say it could turn a school or other government building slated for closure into a towering Live Local project, forever altering the nature of the area.
“This bill makes the bad aspects of Live Local even worse,” Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Ben Sorensen said. “It allows more properties outside of the existing zoning to be used for huge Live Local projects without any city oversight. That’s more places where Live Local could be rammed down our throat and have a profound negative impact on our neighborhoods.”
Senate Bill 948, introduced by State Sen. Stan McClain, R-Ocala, aims to override local regulations aimed at controlling the types and sizes of homes that can be built. The bill would allow homes to be built on lots as small as 1,200 square feet and limit local zoning control over setbacks and density. In addition, owners would not be required to live in the home, potentially triggering a rise in vacation rentals.
Proponents of the bill say it gives developers more flexibility to build on smaller lots.
Critics say it will have a catastrophic impact on neighborhoods by preempting local zoning laws.
“The bill is working to kind of apply Live Local on single-family lots and allow for more townhomes and cluster home developments next to single-family homes — and that’s not what we want,” Sorensen told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Existing zoning would be out the window, impacting neighborhoods all over Fort Lauderdale, Sorensen said.
Chris Williams, president of the Coral Ridge Homeowners Association, called Senate Bill 958 an “(expletive) disaster.”
In his neighborhood, local zoning allows a developer to build 4.4 homes per acre.
“If you change the zoning, you have potentially devalued other people’s properties,” Williams said. “That would be catastrophic. People would go bananas.”
The new bill might stimulate needed growth in a more rural county, but it’s just not needed in a crowded urban area like Fort Lauderdale, Williams said.
“We don’t need to stimulate growth,” he said. “We don’t have to make more places for people to live when the people who live here are already bursting at the seams. Let them go to Charleston. Or Tallahassee.”
Williams also blasted the idea of turning a school into a Live Local project.
“Holy (expletive),” he said. “That’s a train wreck. Schools are on the edges of residential areas. Now we’re going to put a Live Local project there and increase traffic tenfold all day long. Holy smokes. The inmates are running the asylum. It would be catastrophic.”
Marilyn Mammano, a community activist and retired planning expert, eviscerated the so-called Starter Homes bill during a recent City Hall meeting.
“I’m here to cry ‘House on fire,’” Mammano said of Senate Bill 948. “Let’s only hope that it dies a well-deserved death. Because if it lives it will be a catastrophe.”
If the bill were to pass, Mammano predicted the character of single-family neighborhoods would be forever changed, transformed into locales full of tiny duplexes, townhomes and vacation rentals.
“The Tallahassee people have bought into this developer dream that if you keep increasing density, houses will become more affordable,” Mammano said. “In a closed system, increasing the supply does reduce the price of the commodity. But we don’t have a closed system. This is America. People come. You keep building, they keep coming. The price doesn’t come down.”
Vice Mayor John Herbst defended the Starter Home bill.
“All the rowhouses and brownstones in Brooklyn were on narrow lots,” he said. “No lot lines whatsoever. They’re cheek to jowl. And when people wanted a backyard, they moved out to Long Island. The reason New York worked, the density made it possible for 8 million people to live in a relatively congested area.”
Building four townhomes on a small lot will indeed increase the housing supply, he noted.
“Increasing density does increase supply,” he said. “And nobody has repealed the law of supply and demand. As more people move here, they’re going to bid up the price of existing houses. If we do not create more housing, then the price of existing housing goes up more than it will if we create more housing.”
Bottom line: “We have to create more housing,” Herbst said. “We’re not creating more land. So we have to repurpose the land that we have.”
Mayor Dean Trantalis said he was inclined to agree with Mammano.
State legislators seem oblivious to the impact the Live Local Act is having on cities like Fort Lauderdale, Trantalis said.
“I don’t think anyone is paying attention up there to the impact it’s having on communities like Fort Lauderdale, like Miami, like Tampa,” he said. “We’re looking at completely changing the identity of our neighborhoods because someone in Tallahassee has decided that this is how the rest of Florida needs to be accommodated. But there’s a right way of doing it and there’s a wrong way of doing it. And this is definitely the wrong way of doing it.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan