The Live Local Act in Vero Beach — Vero Beach, Florida

The Live Local Act is a 2023 state housing law that applies in every Florida city, Vero Beach included. The Florida Senate record for CS/SB 102 shows the bill was approved by the Governor on March 29, 2023, filed as Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida, carried a $711,000,000 appropriation and took effect July 1, 2023. Among other changes it deleted local authority to impose rent controls and created new property tax exemptions for affordable units.

The City of Vero Beach Live Local Act page explains the law for local applicants. The city describes the Live Local Act, effective July 1, 2023, as addressing affordable housing needs through a variety of incentives, land use policies and publicly owned land tools, and links the three versions that now govern projects in Vero Beach: Chapter 2023-17, Chapter 2024-188 (CS/CS/SB 328) and Chapter 2025-172 (CS/CS/SB 1730). The Planning and Development department, which also handles Vero Beach zoning and the land development regulations, administers it.

The state rule targets commercial, industrial and mixed-use land, not single-family neighborhoods. In Vero Beach, the city lists the qualifying districts as the non-residential districts in Chapter 62 of the city code: Article III (Commercial), Article IV (Industrial), Article IX (Mixed Use) and Article X (Downtown), which takes in Downtown Vero Beach around 14th Avenue. A project there is approved administratively when at least 40 percent of its units serve income-eligible households for at least 30 years, the same threshold set in section 166.04151, Florida Statutes.

Two other categories are handled differently. The statute extends the approval to land owned by a religious institution that contains a house of public worship, regardless of zoning, so long as at least 10 percent of the units are affordable; that clause reaches church property anywhere in Vero Beach. Going the other way, the City of Vero Beach notes that properties in any airport-impacted areas under s. 333.03 are not subject to administrative approval, which includes any property zoned Airport Light Industrial near Vero Beach Regional Airport.

The city publishes the exact numbers it applies as of July 2025. For density, a qualifying project gets the highest density allowed on any land within the City: 17 units per acre. That figure matches the downtown cap that Vero Beach voters declined to raise in the November 2024 charter referendum, so the Live Local Act does not open density above what the city already allows anywhere in Vero Beach.

Height follows location. Under the state formula, a city may not restrict height below the highest currently allowed height for a commercial or residential building within 1 mile of the proposed development or three stories, whichever is higher. Vero Beach translates that into two figures: if the proposed development is on commercial zoned property within 1 mile of the Downtown or Industrial zoning districts, the height limit is 50 feet, and at all other commercial locations in Vero Beach it is 35 feet.

Floor area and parking are also set. The city allows 150 percent of the highest currently allowed floor area ratio within Vero Beach, which works out to a 3.0 FAR. Parking may be cut by 15 percent if a project lies within a quarter mile of a GoLine transit stop, a reduction the city lists alongside its Vero Beach density and height figures.

The act also asks local governments to inventory public land that could suit affordable housing. Vero Beach 32963 reported on November 27, 2025, that the City Council, responding to the law two years earlier, had identified the former city nursery on Old Dixie Highway, next to Crestlawn Cemetery, as the one site in the city suitable for the construction of affordable multi-family housing. City Manager Monte Falls said the 14-acre property, vacant since the late 1980s, might instead be needed for storm-debris storage because Vero Beach had lost two earlier debris sites.

The nursery raised a charter question as well. The Old City Nursery is one of the 26 properties listed in Section 5.05 of the Vero Beach City Charter, according to the city's Three Corners fact sheet, so selling or leasing it normally requires a referendum. City Attorney John Turner told Vero Beach 32963 that whether the state act overrides city charters was unresolved, and that he wrote a letter to the Florida Attorney General's Office in April 2025 without a reply as of November 2025. Planning Director Jason Jeffries said a multifamily affordable project on the nursery site could reach 65 feet, counting 50 feet of building plus 15 feet of architectural embellishment, as downtown and at Three Corners.

The council then settled the inventory question. At its regular meeting on January 13, 2026, the Vero Beach City Council held a public hearing and adopted Resolution No. 2026-07, which, according to the city, determined the City of Vero Beach does not own surplus land appropriate for use as affordable housing.

The process starts with a pre-application meeting with the Vero Beach Planning Director to confirm whether a project qualifies. A qualifying project then goes through the city's regular Major Site Plan review, except that it is approved administratively rather than by the Planning and Zoning Board or City Council. Every Live Local project in Vero Beach must record a Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions keeping at least 40 percent of the units affordable, as defined in s. 420.0004, Florida Statutes, for 30 years.

One optional tool sits unused. The state lets cities grant extra property tax exemptions to developments of 50 or more units that set aside at least 20 percent of units for households at or below 60 percent of area median income, but the city states that the City of Vero Beach has not utilized this tool. The administrative approval itself is temporary: the city notes that Live Local expires on October 1, 2033, matching the sunset in the statute.

Questions about the program go to the Planning and Development department at Vero Beach City Hall. Policy changes, such as using the optional tax exemption, rest with the five elected members listed on the City Council page: Aaron Vos, John Carroll, Linda Moore, Vice Mayor Taylor Dingle and Mayor John E. Cotugno. Last verified: October 8, 2026, on the City of Vero Beach website, using its Live Local Act and City Council pages.