Minneola Ordinance 2024-10 — Live Local Act Regulations

What the ordinance does

Ordinance 2024-10 establishes Minneola's regulatory response to the Florida Live Local Act. The ordinance:

• Restricts future Live Local eligibility to Industrial (I-1) and Business (B-1) districts only — excludes PUDs and parcels subject to development agreements
• Caps density at 8 dwelling units per acre (vs. the statute's higher floors)
• Caps building height at 35 feet (vs. the statute's higher overrides)
• Requires a 40% affordable-unit set-aside for 30 years
• Requires annual income reporting by operators
• Requires a 20% commercial floor area minimum for any mixed-use project
• Requires 20% open space
• Requires street-oriented design
• Defines "major transit stop" as existing rail rapid transit only — narrowing the statutory threshold

On-the-record context

City Planner Joyce Heffington noted at the March 12, 2024 P&Z meeting that the ordinance does not apply to current Live Local projects (Pointe Grande) due to submittal timing and DRC schedule. The Pointe Grande arc — entitling 300 units, subsequently moderated to 178 townhomes through sustained civic engagement — was the proximate trigger. The ordinance is the structural lock placed after Pointe Grande's path could not be reversed.

Why the entity matters for the corpus

Ordinance 2024-10 is the corridor's clearest example of a city authoring defensive code at maximum statutorily-permissible aggression. It is also the cardinal example of the Grandfather Window thesis: adopted in March 2024 — five months before SB 180's August 2024 retroactive line — the ordinance is grandfathered and protected from the state-level moratorium on more-restrictive code amendments. Cities authoring Live Local defensive codes after August 2024 face SB 180 exposure that 2024-10 does not.

The corridor's other Live Local responses read against this baseline: Clermont's February 2024 density-cap reduction in the Comp Plan (also pre-line, also protected) is the moderate-defense companion; Leesburg's absence of any defensive code as of May 2026 is the negative case.