{"id":212074,"date":"2026-03-30T19:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/212074\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:42:07","slug":"new-florida-housing-law-draws-support-and-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/212074\/","title":{"rendered":"New Florida housing law draws support and criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – A new state law promises to make housing more affordable, but some local leaders say it comes at a steep price.<\/p>\n

The law, an extension of Florida\u2019s Live Local Act, fast-tracks permitting and limits what local governments can reject. Supporters say that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s needed. Critics say it strips away local control.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Florida is not immune to the issue of affordability,\u201d said Zayne Smith, AARP Florida senior director of advocacy.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers have been working on bringing down housing costs across Florida for several years with the passage of the Live Local Act two years ago. An extension of that law will fast-track the permitting process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing for a lot of our older residents here in Florida is that housing is costing a lot. And it\u2019s taken a large percentage of people who are on fixed incomes, monthly income. Social Security has not gone up,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

AARP Florida supports the new law that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed on Friday. Smith says a key provision lowers costs for manufactured homeowners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the choice of homes for a lot of older Floridians and people who move here. They\u2019re smaller, there\u2019s less upkeep, less maintenance. You have a community of people who are of similar age, maybe similar experience in life,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

HB 399<\/a> requires local governments to charge development permit fees that reasonably relate to the costs of reviewing and processing applications. The bill also requires local government staff to identify specific areas of incompatibility before recommending denial of rezoning, subdivision, or site plan approval applications on compatibility grounds.<\/p>\n

Florida Politics:<\/p>\n

Local governments cannot deny an application on compatibility grounds unless the denial includes written findings identifying areas of incompatibility and concluding that proposed mitigation measures are inadequate and no feasible mitigation measures exist.<\/p>\n

The law provides for the placement of manufactured housing on any lot in a recreational vehicle park and provides for parity in regulations for off-site constructed residential dwellings compared to on-site construction.<\/p>\n

Starting Jan. 1, 2027, local governments must include factors for assessing the compatibility of allowable residential uses within a residential zoning district in their comprehensive plans and land development regulations.<\/p>\n

Many local governments don\u2019t see it this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a preemption bill,\u201d said Christine Valliere, St. Johns County economic development director.<\/p>\n

St. Johns County was one of several counties that tried to get DeSantis to veto the bill, partly because it gives fewer options when deciding on permits, including whether new projects fit the character of current neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very against losing our home rule. The challenge that we face here are our priorities here at the county level are not the same as the state and federal level,\u201d said St. Johns County Commissioner Clay Murphy.<\/p>\n

Murphy says that\u2019s the core concern and why he opposes outside direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge for me to allow someone who doesn\u2019t live here to come in and tell us how to do our business,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – A new state law promises to make housing more affordable, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1571,1442,2152,28,30,29,2161,66244,1644,1443,17473,97039,99,70005,6975,2157],"class_list":["post-212074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-affordable-housing","tag-cody-butler","tag-development","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-government","tag-hb-399","tag-housing","tag-legislature","tag-live-local-act","tag-manufactured-housing","tag-politics","tag-preemption","tag-regulations","tag-zoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}