[Watch] Lake County Board of Adjustment dissolution

Lake County is dissolving its appointed Board of Adjustment
effective July 1, 2026 (June 3 PZB agenda, Tab 2; County Attorney
Melanie Marsh drafting; repeals LDR §§13.02.00/13.03.00; the BOA
was created by Ordinance 1996-88 in November 1996). All variances,
waivers, and appeals — including flood-construction variances under
§553.73(5) Fla. Stat. — transfer directly to the elected Board of
County Commissioners. The stated rationale is applicant convenience;
the structural effect is the removal of a quasi-judicial buffer
whose entire function was criteria-bound, politics-insulated
variance decisions. The elected commission now holds the full
stack — comprehensive plan, zoning, variances, and appeals — and the
only standing land-use advisory body left in unincorporated Lake is
the Planning & Zoning Board itself. A web check finds no statewide
2026 trend of Florida counties dissolving boards of adjustment
(Seminole, Escambia, Highlands, and Lakeland all run active BOAs),
which marks this as a local governance choice rather than statutory
compliance. The watch tracks whether the BCC's first variance
dockets produce different outcomes than the appointed board did.