The pattern
Florida Senate Bill 180 sorts the corridor's regulatory architecture into two categories. Codes adopted before the August 2024 retroactive line are grandfathered — they continue to enforce, including against developers who would prefer the looser pre-2022 framework. Codes adopted after the line are exposed — citizen-plaintiff challenge can void them under SB 180's preemption regime, which expires October 2027.
The bracket sorts the four South Lake cities. Clermont's Wellness Way Design Standards (2022) and Pointe Grande Live-Local-restriction ordinance (March 2024) sit pre-line. Groveland's Eco-Agrarian Lifestyle Code (October 2025) sits post-line. Minneola has a mix. Leesburg's denial-bloc operates without code-level defenses — its restraint is procedural, not codified.
The 38-month window
Correction (August 15, 2026). This section previously read: "Cities have until October 2027 to adopt new restrictive codes that won't be SB 180-exposed." That inverts the statute. Ch. 2025-190 §28(1) prohibits a covered local government from proposing or adopting a more restrictive or burdensome regulation before October 1, 2027, and declares any such measure null and void ab initio. October 2027 is when adoption becomes lawful again — not a deadline to beat. Adopting inside the window is what creates the exposure. The text below is corrected; the sorting logic above was and remains right.
Only regulation in place before the August 1, 2024 retroactive line is grandfathered, and that set closed two years ago — no amount of drafting speed adds to it. Everything a covered city adopts between that line and October 1, 2027 is challengeable as void from inception, whoever drafted it and however carefully.
The pattern's significance is therefore about position, not pace. Clermont and Minneola hold pre-line instruments (Wellness Way Design Standards 2022; Ordinance 2024-10, March 2024) that enforce today. Groveland's CDC V5 and Clermont's DPZ-led downtown form-based code are not racing a closing door; they are waiting for one to open, and neither can lawfully take effect against a developer before October 2027.
What each city codifies after the window opens determines the next decade of land-use entitlement leverage — subject to s. 252.422, which re-arms the same prohibition for a year after every qualifying hurricane landfall, permanently.
For deeper reading, see the brief at /briefs/grandfather-window. For the corrected mechanics — direction, the §28(2) safe harbor, the §28(3)(b) cure, and the permanent successor statute — see The Window That Reloads.