Resources

• Florida Housing Finance Corporation

• Florida Housing Coalition

• Full Bill Text (SB 102)

• Amendment Bill Text (SB 328)

Live Local Act (Florida)

How does the Live Local Act, and its recent amendments in Senate Bill 328, affect housing opportunities in your community?

We work with affordable housing developers and local governments to assess the evolving landscape created by the Live Local Act and Senate Bill 328. This includes understanding the new opportunities and challenges associated with the Act's land use and zoning preemptions, particularly the recent changes impacting funding for affordable housing, parking requirements for preemption projects, and focusing development near transit hubs. This knowledge empowers you to leverage the Act effectively to create the most impactful housing solutions.

Want to learn more about the Live Local Act and Senate Bill 328?

The Live Local Act, also known as Senate Bill 102, is a comprehensive bipartisan workforce housing initiative signed into law on March 29, 2023. The Act, effective July 1, 2023, aims to address Florida's growing affordable housing shortage by providing significant funding, incentives, and regulatory reforms to encourage the development of affordable and workforce housing. Senate Bill 328, passed during the 2024 Legislative Session, further amends and expands upon the Act's framework.

The Live Local Act can be a great tool for expanding opportunities for affordable housing development in a way that also incentivizes urban infill development, adaptive reuse of underutilized properties, and walkability. However, misuse of the Act can also result in affordable housing being built in places where people should not live, like food deserts, near hazardous industrial uses, and in areas without sidewalks or access to transit.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Live Local Act, we’ve provided links to some of the most useful resources, including the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC), the Florida Housing Coalition, and a link to the full bill text. FHFC administers the largest affordable housing programs in the state, including tax credits, SAIL, and SHIP, and provides a lot of helpful information about how the Act created new opportunities to fund affordable housing development. The Florida Housing Coalition is responsible for providing technical assistance to local governments and their nonprofit partners to help them understand the implications of the Act.

If you’re a local government representative, and you’re starting to explore how the Live Local Act affects your community, we recommend reaching out to the Coalition to request technical assistance before you hire our firm or another private consultant.

Want to implement the Live Local Act in your community?

If you are ready to take the next steps to ensure that the Live Local Act is implemented effectively to expand housing opportunities in a positive way in your community, we are ready to help. Consider hiring Amarach for the following services:

Guided growth policy recommendations: We will provide customized comprehensive plan and land development code recommendations to facilitate well-designed use of the Live Local Act and avoid potentially harmful projects. Every City or County is unique, and we will investigate the feasibility of a creative variety of policy options designed to fit within your current regulatory framework and achieve your goals. Potential policy strategies could include design standards, performance-based standards, and density bonuses or other development incentives in targeted areas that are appropriate for high density residential development. If desired, in addition to our recommendations, we will draft selected policy and code amendments for our clients to ensure effective implementation.

Market analysis: We will conduct a housing market analysis specifically geared towards understanding the effect of the Live Local Act on where multifamily and mixed-use development is most likely to occur. Our analysis will investigate current gaps in the housing market, recent development trends, an assessment of property values and other market considerations on commercial and industrial properties affected by the Act’s preemption, and identification of areas that are likely targets for new affordable housing development.

Mapping services: We will map out the effects of the Live Local Act within your local government or market area boundary and design an online GIS app to check pre- and post-Live Local Act housing allowances on specific parcels. We will also determine if the 20% rule applies to a local government, thereby determining if the preemption applies to single-use affordable housing developments, or only to mixed-use developments.

Reviewing, monitoring, and enforcing affordability requirements: We will help you design processes and standards necessary to review and monitor affordable housing proposals that fall under the Live Local Act preemption to ensure initial and long-term compliance with the Act’s affordability requirements, as well as enforcement procedures to ensure the requirements are followed.

Individual property assessments: We will analyze if and how the Live Local Act changed the affordable housing development entitlements for a particular piece of property. Our written assessment will detail how the Act affects the property in terms of allowed land use, density, building height, and approval procedure in light of the new preemptions. We can also include guidance on funding sources and an assessment of other factors in the local government’s comprehensive plan and land development code that may limit development potential on the property, such as stormwater management, parking, open space, tree preservation, access, setbacks, buffers, historic preservation, architectural review, and other development considerations.

Affordable housing development assistance: We will work with your development team for qualified affordable housing projects in a project manager capacity, or to assist your team in designing a project that meets both market demand and community needs, securing entitlements and leveraging the Live Local Act, comparing and applying for financing options and grant programs, structuring your deal to achieve financial feasibility, and setting up procedures to ensure long-term compliance with affordability requirements.