Clermont Ordinance 2026-013 — Certified Recovery Residences

What the ordinance does

Ordinance 2026-013 adds a new article under Chapter 125 (Zoning) of the Clermont Land Development Code, formalizing the review and approval process for reasonable-accommodation requests for certified recovery residences. The structure aligns Clermont's procedure with Florida SB 954's amendment to F.S. § 397.487 (effective July 1, 2025), which requires local governments to establish a formal, streamlined process to handle these requests under the federal Fair Housing Act. The ordinance retains city enforcement authority over life safety, building code, parking, and property-maintenance compliance.

The vote on the record

• March 3, 2026 — Planning & Zoning Commission, 6-0 (Colby, Niemiec, Tidona, Entsuah, May, Cramer; Hoisington absent). One condition added by motion: substitute "City Manager" / "City Manager's designee" for "Department" / "Department Director" in four places on packet pages 56-57, per City Attorney Christian Waugh's direction.
• No public opposition on the Recovery Residences text amendment.

Notable on-the-record framing

Commissioner Cramer named the policy frame explicitly: the city has both legal and moral obligations under state and federal law, and the ordinance is engineered to comply while preserving life-safety, building, parking, and property-maintenance enforcement authority. Commissioner Tidona pointed members to the Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR) website. Commissioner May raised the deepest substantive questions — whether parking standards should vary by level of care (especially Level 4, which can include clinical services), whether the Planning Division (not the City Manager alone) should be the reviewing authority, and whether proof of state certification should be a required application element. Chair Colby asked if it was critical to pass now; Waugh said yes.

Why the entity matters for the corpus

Clermont's response to a state preemption surface in February 2024 was reactive — defensive density-cap reduction in the Comprehensive Plan against Live Local Act exposure. The response to SB 954 in March 2026 is structurally inverse: regulatory infrastructure built proactively, with the procedural framework adopted before any specific application arrives. The ordinance is the corridor's cleanest example of coding for federal triggers without ceding local control. Future cities entering similar regulatory pressure should study the timing.

The entity also closes one half of a cross-city pattern — Leesburg's first certified-recovery-residence CUP (2007 Butler Street, CUP-26-871, approved 6-0 March 19, 2026) lands in the same 28-day window. Two jurisdictions, two procedural surfaces, one statutory trigger.