Live Local vs. Local Planning
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Live Local vs. Local Planning

December 11, 2024

Webinar passcode: AE^u7E?a

1000 Friends of Florida hosted an examination of Florida’s Live Local Act, a wide-reaching yet controversial piece of legislation intended to address the state’s affordable housing crisis. Webinar presenters unpacked the Act’s objectives to increase affordable housing availability and remove administrative barriers for multifamily residential developments. It covered key provisions of the law, including the Act’s preemption of local zoning rules, height and density requirements, and affordability enforcement measures, and how these provisions impact local governments’ comprehensive planning ability.

Participants heard from prominent local government attorneys Susan Trevarthen and David Goldstein, along with Thomas Hawkins, director of the University of Florida’s Environmental and Community Development Clinic. They provided insights into the Act’s implementation challenges and implications, using Pasco County as a case study to explore tensions between urban-focused legislative intent and the realities of rural and suburban planning. Specific examples included the impacts on industrial zoning and how local governments navigate these mandates amidst concerns of overdevelopment.

The session concluded with actionable guidance and proposed legislative and policy changes, including a model administrative policy designed to assist local governments in tailoring the Act’s requirements to their unique circumstances.

Students from the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Environmental and Community Development Clinic drafted a model administrative review policy to implement Florida’s Live Local Act. Read the draft policy here. Please send questions about the model policy to Thomas Hawkins at hawkins@law.ufl.edu .

This event was approved for the following professionals who attended the live event: planners (1.5 AICP General,1 Law CM # 9302617), and Florida attorneys (1.5 General CLE, #2413265N)

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