No. CS/CS/HB 837
Filed under Local Government.
Affordable Housing; Revises definitions of certain land use categories for which certain residential development may be authorized to exclude farms & farm operations & uses associated therewith; revises definition of term "industrial use" to exclude certain facilities.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFarms, farm operations, and the packaging or sale of products raised on the premises no longer count as commercial use, industrial use, or mixed use under the county and municipal affordable-housing statutes.
Those three categories are the ones these statutes use to describe land eligible for the residential development they authorize, so farmland is removed from all three at once.
The bill also strikes meat packing, citrus processing and packing, and produce processing and packing facilities from the list of activities that count as industrial use.
It adds three new areas to the list where these development provisions don't apply at all: pre-2026 open-space zoning districts, areas of critical state concern, and the Florida wildlife corridor.
AIFarms, farm operations, and uses associated with them -- including packaging and selling products raised on the premises -- no longer count as commercial use, industrial use, or mixed use under the county and municipal affordable-housing statutes, removing farmland from all three categories at once.
AIMeat packing facilities, citrus processing and packing facilities, and produce processing and packing facilities are removed from the statutory list of activities that count as industrial use, so parcels devoted to those uses no longer automatically qualify as industrial use under these sections.
AIPre-2026 open-space zoning districts, areas of critical state concern, and the Florida wildlife corridor are added to the list of areas where these land-use categories do not apply, joining existing exclusions for certain waterfront property, the Wekiva Study Area, and the Everglades Protection Area.