GULFPORT, Fla. \u2014 The city of Gulfport is one step closer to creating more affordable housing.<\/p>\n
City leaders passed an ordinance that sets rules and regulations for accessory dwelling units, also known as granny flats or in-law suites.<\/p>\n
Michelle Bisesi, Gulfport property owner and manager, has big dreams for their backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our jungle oasis that\u2019s got a lot of potential,\u201d Bisesi said.<\/p>\n
Bisesi has been considering building an accessory dwelling unit. She said that not only would it increase the property value, but it would also provide more housing for people on fixed incomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be more affordable housing in the area and give people an opportunity that are renting to have a nice, safe place to live, accessible to a really great community in Gulfport,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The new ordinance to allow for accessory dwelling units says that the secondary living spaces must meet zoning requirements, cannot be more than 800 square feet, and the property owner must live in one of the two spaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just adds more housing stock that allows people to live where they work and allows people with elderly individuals have a second unit, or have their mother-in-law move in so that people can afford their homes,\u201d said Mark Griffin, Gulfport\u2019s acting planning administrator.<\/p>\n
Griffin said about two-thirds of the city is eligible to get an ADU. To build one, he said, residents have to go through the building permit process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes through zoning review and then building review. As long as it meets the Florida building code requirements and it meets the the standards set, then would be approved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bisesi said she wants to get rid of the carport and shed in her yard to build the secondary residence. She said ideally there would be a garage on the first floor with an apartment or office space on the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely have a dream for this property. I love it and I feel comfortable here, and so I think my long-term plans would include an ADU and a place that I could potentially live,\u201d Bisesi said.<\/p>\n
There is one more step before the process is done.<\/p>\n
In addition to the zoning ordinance, the city council needs to pass another ordinance making an amendment to the comprehensive plan allowing for ADUs.<\/p>\n
Council members are expected to discuss this at its next meeting on July 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
The acting planning administrator said it\u2019s projected to pass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GULFPORT, Fla. \u2014 The city of Gulfport is one step closer to creating more affordable housing. City leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1571,16022,27812,1644,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,1374,835],"class_list":["post-320104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-affordable-housing","tag-app-housing","tag-app-latest-housing-stories","tag-housing","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-tyler-oneill","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320104","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=320104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}