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SB 1118

Relating to tolling highways; declaring an emergency.

2025 Regular Session Introduced by April Dobson and 4 co-sponsors

Florida SB 1118 broadens land use rules, creating recreational covenants for HOA dues and allowing streamlined development approvals while tightening density rules and planning rev

In committee upon adjournment.
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · SB 1118

Summary — SB 1118 (CS/SB 1118) — Land Use, Development Regulations, and Homeowners’ Associations (Florida)

Note on scope: multiple unrelated bills numbered SB 1118 appear in the provided materials (Arizona barbering/cosmetology, Hawaii moped rule, Illinois technical change). The detailed analysis supplied here applies to the Florida community‑affairs committee substitute (CS/SB 1118) titled in the analysis materials “Land Use and Development Regulations.”

Purpose / Intent

CS/SB 1118 makes broad changes to Florida law governing comprehensive planning, local land development regulations, and certain homeowners’ association (HOA) governance items. The stated intent is to revise approval processes for certain types of development, clarify compatibility rules among residential categories and housing types, limit optional comprehensive plan provisions that constrain density/intensity, and create statutory authority and rules for “recreational covenants” governing amenity fees and related HOA charges.

Effective date: July 1, 2025.

Key provisions — Comprehensive planning and land use

  • Creates a new administrative mechanism for approving development on agricultural enclaves (substantially new process).
  • Declares that all residential future land use categories, residential zoning categories, and housing types are compatible with one another.
  • Prohibits optional elements of comprehensive plans from including policies that restrict density or intensity established in the future land use element.
  • Requires a supermajority vote of a governing body to adopt by ordinance any comprehensive plan or plan amendment that imposes more restrictive or burdensome procedures on development than existing rules.
  • Provides for judicial review of comprehensive plan amendments under standards “more favorable” than the current Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) challenge framework.

Key provisions — Land development regulations

  • Requires local land development regulations to provide minimum lot sizes in certain zoning districts sufficient to accommodate the maximum authorized density.
  • Mandates administrative approval of certain infill development applications without further local action under specified circumstances.
  • Defines “extraordinary circumstance” for the narrow purpose of allowing impact fees to be raised above statutorily prescribed percentages.
  • Clarifies that on‑farm ethanol production for agricultural purposes is not classified as chemical manufacturing/refining for local regulatory purposes.
  • Prohibits counties/municipalities from making the installation of works of art a precondition for issuing a development permit.
  • Revises plat submittal review timelines and procedures.
  • Protects a municipality’s assumption of land use regulatory authority when annexing unincorporated land.

Key provisions — Homeowners’ associations

  • Adds a Part IV to chapter 720, Florida Statutes, establishing “recreational covenants” to govern amenity fees, dues, and related expenses.
  • Provides that certain amenity dues may only be imposed and collected pursuant to a properly adopted recreational covenant and prescribes required contents, procedures for creation, and conditions for use.

Who is affected

  • Counties and municipalities (planning, zoning, and permitting processes)
  • Developers, landowners, and applicants for development, especially on agricultural enclaves and infill parcels
  • Homeowners’ associations, amenity providers, and homeowners/residents subject to recreational covenants
  • Local permitting and fee‑setting authorities (impact fees, plat approvals)
  • Courts and administrative hearing bodies (new review standards)

Procedural / status notes

  • Introduced: February 5, 2025. Committee substitute (CS) adopted in Community Affairs (March 2025).
  • Legislative history in supplied materials shows committee hearings and referrals (Community Affairs, Regulated Industries), calendar placements, and subsequent referral activity (including Rule 3‑9(a) / re‑referred to Assignments).
  • Effective date specified in bill: July 1, 2025.

If you’d like, I can:
- Produce a side‑by‑side comparison showing how this bill changes specific Florida statutory sections, or
- Summarize potential legal and economic impacts for local governments, developers, and HOAs.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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