Florida SB 48 (2026): Why the ADU Bill Failed

Florida's ADU bill passed the Senate 38–0 but never got a House vote in 2026 — traded in budget talks. What it means for Central Florida homeowners.

By Andy West Ocala, FL

Florida Senate Bill 48 (2026) would have been the biggest change to Florida’s ADU rules in a generation. It would have overridden most local bans on accessory dwelling units, required every county and city to allow ADUs in single-family neighborhoods, and given local governments until December 1, 2026 to update their codes.

It did not become law.

SB 48 passed the Florida Senate unanimously on February 4, 2026 by a vote of 37–0. It then crossed to the House, where it was never scheduled for a committee hearing or a floor vote. When the legislative session ended on March 13, 2026, the bill expired with it. Its House companion, HB 313, also died without ever advancing out of its first committee. The ADU provisions were briefly folded into HB 1389 — the “Live Local 4.0” housing package — as a last-ditch compromise, then removed by the House Commerce Committee before that bill advanced. What remained of Live Local 4.0 passed without any ADU language.

This page explains how a bill that passed the Senate unanimously died in the House — using the public record: committee agendas, witness forms, amendment numbers, and Florida’s lobbyist filings. If you came here expecting a new state law, there isn’t one. The existing Florida ADU law hasn’t changed, and we explain what it actually says on the Florida ADU Law page.

What SB 48 would have done

SB 48 would have declared any lot zoned for single-family use automatically eligible to add one ADU. It would have set statewide minimum standards that local governments couldn’t go below, banned owner-occupancy requirements on larger lots, and required every county and city to update its code by December 1, 2026.

One important thing it would not have done: overridden HOA covenants. That exception mattered more than almost anything else in the bill, because a large share of Central Florida’s housing stock — Celebration, most master-planned communities along I-4, Oviedo’s deed-restricted neighborhoods — is HOA-governed. For those homeowners, SB 48 would have changed nothing even if it had passed.

None of the above is presently in effect. The rest of this page is about why.

Timeline of the bill’s death

January 13, 2026. Session opens. SB 48, sponsored by Sen. Don Gaetz (R–Niceville), is already filed. HB 313, the House companion, is filed the same week.

February 4, 2026. The Florida Senate passes SB 48 unanimously, 37–0.

February 11, 2026. The House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee hears HB 1389 (Live Local 4.0). Witness appearance records list three on-the-record supporters: the Florida Home Builders Association, the Florida Housing Coalition, and AARP. No opponents appear on the form.

February 18, 2026. The House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee meets. Its agenda includes HB 1389, but not HB 313 — the standalone bill containing the ADU preemption. 1000 Friends of Florida appears as the sole opponent to HB 1389; AARP remains on the record in support.

February 24, 2026. The House Commerce Committee takes up HB 1389. The committee adopts a substitute that does two things at once: removes the ADU language that had been folded into the bill as a compromise, and removes a provision that would have let local governments opt out of the statewide property-tax-exemption program. Both changes are pushed through together via two amendments — numbered 789001 and 406455.

The witness appearance form for that meeting shows:

Supporting amendment 406455:

  • Florida Chamber of Commerce (Colton Madill)
  • Florida Realtors (Murphy Giering, Public Policy Representative)

Opposing amendment 406455:

  • Florida Association of Counties (Jeff Scala, Deputy Director of Public Policy)
  • Florida League of Cities (Rebecca O’Hara, Deputy General Counsel)

The alignment is atypical. The county and city associations — the groups that normally lead opposition to state preemption of local zoning — opposed the amendment that removed the ADU preemption. They did so because the same amendment also stripped the opt-out provision they wanted to keep. Local-government advocates were willing to accept the ADU mandate if it meant preserving the ability to opt out of Live Local’s tax-exemption program. The compromise forced them to prioritize, and they lost.

March 13, 2026. The legislative session ends. SB 48 expires in the Florida House without receiving a floor vote. HB 313 dies without advancing from the Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee. The stripped version of HB 1389 passes both chambers without ADU language and is sent to the Governor.

Why HB 313 never advanced

The Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee met on February 18, 2026. HB 1389 was on its agenda. HB 313 was not.

Committee agendas in the Florida House are controlled by the committee chair. The chair of the Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee for the 2026 regular session is Rep. Berny Jacques (R). By declining to calendar HB 313, the chair effectively closed its path through the House without any subcommittee vote. The subcommittee’s seventeen other members had no procedural opportunity to consider it.

This is a procedural observation, not an accusation. Chairs routinely decide which bills advance and which do not; that is an ordinary and well-understood power of the position. What it means in this specific case is that HB 313 was not rejected on its merits in a vote of the subcommittee — it simply never reached the agenda, and therefore never got the kind of hearing that might have built or broken momentum for the Senate version during the critical mid-session window.

Who was in the room

Florida’s lobbyist registration database is public record. It shows who was registered to lobby on each bill — not who was responsible for the outcome. Names appearing below don’t mean anyone did anything improper. We publish the registrations because knowing which organizations were engaged with a bill is useful context for understanding how it moved.

SB 48 registrations

The Senate bill attracted 22 lobbyist registrations across roughly 13 principals. The principals break into four groups:

Local-government interests. Florida Association of Counties (Peter Abello, Courtney Jo Mooney); the City of Sebring; Palm Beach County.

Housing and development. Ability Housing (through Johnson & Blanton); the Florida Housing Finance Corporation; Coral Rock Pompano and Neighborlee Living (both through Stearns Weaver Miller).

Business and ideological. The Florida Chamber of Commerce, with five registrations (Kayla Hopkins, Carolyn Johnson, Colton Madill, Frank Walker III, Mark Wilson); Americans for Prosperity (Daniel Martinez, Derick Tabertshofer); the Property Appraisers’ Association of Florida.

Healthcare. Lee Health System (three registrations); Florida Hospital Association (two).

HB 1389 registrations

The Live Local vehicle attracted roughly 50 registrations across nearly 30 principals. The heaviest concentrations, in descending order:

Florida League of Cities fielded eight registered lobbyists — Jeffrey Branch, Charles Tyler Chapman IV (through C4 Strategies), Thomas Cook, David Cruz, Rebecca O’Hara, Allison Payne, Matthew Singer, and Samuel Wagoner. Florida Association of Counties registered four — Edward Labrador, Courtney Jo Mooney, Jeff Scala, and Davin Suggs. The Florida Chamber of Commerce registered five — Kayla Hopkins, Carolyn Johnson, Colton Madill, Frank Walker III, and Mark Wilson. Atlantic Housing Partners registered four through GrayRobinson PA — Roy Cannon Jr., George Levesque, Joseph Salzverg, and Jason Unger. Florida Realtors registered two — Murphy Giering directly, and Darrick D. McGhee Sr. through Johnson & Blanton. McGhee also registered on HB 1389 for two additional principals through the same firm — Ability Housing and the Florida Airports Council — making him the only lobbyist on either bill who registered for three distinct principals on the same legislation.

The gap between SB 48 (22 registrations) and HB 1389 (roughly 50) is the most telling number on this page. More than twice as many lobbyists attached to HB 1389 because far more money was at stake in the Live Local property-tax exemptions. The ADU bill was the smaller issue. When the two were combined, the ADU language became the piece that could be cut — and it was.

The honest read

The simplest narrative — “lobbyists killed the ADU bill” — is not supported by the record. SB 48 passed the Senate unanimously. Its companion died without a subcommittee vote because one person, the chair, did not schedule it. Its provisions were then attached to a larger bill and stripped in committee as part of a negotiation that was primarily about tax-exemption opt-outs, not ADUs.

The record supports a more specific story. The ADU language died as a side effect of a Live Local 4.0 negotiation. The Florida Association of Counties and the Florida League of Cities — the two organizations most invested in keeping local control over zoning — actually opposed the amendment that cut the ADU language. They did so because that same amendment also cut a tax-exemption opt-out they wanted to preserve. When forced to choose, they went to the mat for the opt-out. They lost that fight, and the ADU provisions came out as part of the same package.

That matters for 2027. An ADU bill kept separate from Live Local’s tax machinery is harder to trade away. Attached to a larger negotiation, it becomes the piece that can be cut without anyone really losing their primary goal.

What happens between now and 2027

The 2027 regular session convenes in January. Between now and then, the practical situation for Central Florida homeowners is straightforward: state law has not changed, so local ADU rules continue to apply as they did before SB 48 was filed. Counties that permit ADUs under existing local code still permit them; counties that restrict ADUs still restrict them. The December 1, 2026 compliance deadline that the bill would have established does not exist.

If you are considering an ADU in Central Florida, the three things worth doing in 2026 are all independent of whether a state law eventually passes. Pull your deed restrictions. Order a survey and site plan. Call your county planning office and ask, in writing, what your parcel’s current ADU eligibility looks like under today’s code. None of that work is wasted if SB 48 or a successor bill passes in 2027; all of it accelerates your timeline if it does.

We will update this page if the Legislature schedules a special session on housing, if the bill is refiled for 2027, or if any individual or principal named on this page provides a correction we can verify against the public record.

Primary sources

Witness appearance data and lobbyist registration data cited on this page are drawn directly from public records published by the Florida Legislature. A working copy of the records consulted is retained in the site’s source files and will be provided on request to any reader who wishes to verify a specific claim. Last verified: 2026-04-17.