Central Florida ADU Rules by County on Central Florida ADU Authority

Lakeland ADU Rules (2026)

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lakeland sits at the center of the I-4 corridor (35 minutes from Tampa, 55 from Orlando), and its employment base is not a real estate story or a tourism story. Publix Super Markets, the largest employee-owned grocer in the United States, is headquartered here with more than 8,000 employees at its Lakeland campus. Amazon operates one of its largest air hub and fulfillment operations in Polk County, employing roughly 5,500. Lakeland Regional Health is the fifth-largest hospital in Florida, with more than 6,000 employees. That employment foundation creates durable, year-round rental demand for workforce housing: the kind of tenant pool that makes ADU income projections hold up outside of optimistic spreadsheet assumptions.

Leesburg ADU Rules (2026)

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Leesburg has become one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States — third nationally in recent growth rate surveys — and the driver is not a tech campus or a stadium. It is The Villages. Squeezed between The Villages to the northwest and the expanding Orlando metro to the east, Leesburg added roughly 40 percent to its population between 2020 and 2024, reaching nearly 38,000 residents. The city’s taxable property value jumped from $1.2 billion to $3.2 billion in that same period. Forty thousand new housing units have been approved.

Ocala ADU Rules (2026)

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If your property is inside Ocala city limits, you are not building under Marion County’s Land Development Code — you are building under the City of Ocala’s own Chapter 122 zoning ordinance, which has its own district structure, its own dimensional standards, and a different approach to secondary dwellings than the county code. The difference matters more than most homeowners expect, and the most useful thing this page can do is tell you exactly what the code says before you spend anything.

Sanford ADU Rules (2026)

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sanford is Seminole County’s county seat: a downtown built along the Lake Monroe waterfront that has been through several cycles of growth, decline, and deliberate revival. The revitalization that started in the mid-2000s took hold: the historic blocks along First Street and the marina district now draw residents and investment from across the region. For homeowners, that revival history matters because a significant portion of Sanford sits inside one of three National Register Historic Districts, and any accessory dwelling project in those areas requires a step that most of Central Florida does not: a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Board.

Clermont ADU Rules (2026)

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Clermont is one of the fastest-growing cities in Florida — the hill country west of Orlando has drawn significant residential development over the past decade — and it has a genuine ADU ordinance to match. Two facts are worth knowing before anything else: Clermont permits full accessory dwelling units with independent kitchens (not the restricted “guest house” framework that governs unincorporated Lake County), and a January 2026 ordinance cut the city’s ADU impact fees to one-quarter the standard rate. Those two things together make Clermont one of the more straightforward ADU jurisdictions in Central Florida right now.

Oviedo ADU Rules (2026)

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Oviedo is in Seminole County and runs its own Land Development Code. If your address is inside Oviedo city limits, the City of Oviedo governs your ADU permit — not Seminole County. Oviedo’s code was completely overhauled in November 2024 (Ordinance 1752), and for the first time that rewrite included a dedicated ADU section with specific standards. This is a meaningful improvement over the old code, which addressed ADUs only indirectly.

Winter Park ADU Rules (2026)

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Winter Park is inside Orange County but runs its own Land Development Code, its own permit office, and its own fee schedule. If your address is inside the city limits, the City of Winter Park governs your ADU — not Orange County. That distinction matters a lot, because Winter Park’s rules are meaningfully different from unincorporated Orange County’s in several ways, most of them unfavorable to ADU projects.

Florida’s SB 48 did not become law. The bill that would have set uniform statewide ADU rules failed in the House when the 2026 legislative session ended without a vote. Winter Park’s own local code governs. Any resource suggesting a new state ADU law overrides local rules is wrong.

Kissimmee ADU Rules (2026)

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

🌐 ¿Prefiere español? Este artículo está disponible en español: Reglas para ADU en Kissimmee

New to Kissimmee ADU rules? Start with the quick-check first: our five-question Kissimmee eligibility guide confirms city limits, zoning district, lot size, covenants, and STR overlay in about five minutes using free public records — no address form required.

If your property is inside Kissimmee’s city limits, you are not building under Osceola County’s rules — you are building under the City of Kissimmee’s Land Development Code, which handles ADUs differently on several points that matter. One of those points is large enough to surprise homeowners who found a resource online that described “Osceola County ADU rules” and assumed that covered them: ADUs in Kissimmee’s residential zones are a conditional use, not a by-right use. That means a public hearing.

Orlando ADU Rules (2026)

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If your Orlando property is inside the city limits, the City of Orlando — not Orange County — governs your ADU project. This is the single most important thing to get right before spending any money on design or pro forma, because Orlando runs its own Land Development Code, its own permit office, and its own fee schedule. Orange County’s rules are a useful reference but they are not the rules that govern your parcel.

Brevard County ADU Rules (2026)