Florida Statutes
Part I - Environmental Land and Water Management (Ss. 380.012-380.12)
380.0651 - Statewide guidelines, standards, and exemptions.

(1) STATEWIDE GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS.—Subject to the exemptions and partial exemptions specified in this section, the following statewide guidelines and standards shall be applied in the manner described in s. 380.06(2) to determine whether the following developments are subject to the requirements of s. 380.06:
(a) Airports.—
1. Any of the following airport construction projects is a development of regional impact:
a. A new commercial service or general aviation airport with paved runways.
b. A new commercial service or general aviation paved runway.
c. A new passenger terminal facility.

2. Lengthening of an existing runway by 25 percent or an increase in the number of gates by 25 percent or three gates, whichever is greater, on a commercial service airport or a general aviation airport with regularly scheduled flights is a development of regional impact. However, expansion of existing terminal facilities at a nonhub or small hub commercial service airport is not a development of regional impact.
3. Any airport development project which is proposed for safety, repair, or maintenance reasons alone and would not have the potential to increase or change existing types of aircraft activity is not a development of regional impact. Notwithstanding subparagraphs 1. and 2., renovation, modernization, or replacement of airport airside or terminal facilities that may include increases in square footage of such facilities but does not increase the number of gates or change the existing types of aircraft activity is not a development of regional impact.

(b) Attractions and recreation facilities.—Any sports, entertainment, amusement, or recreation facility, including, but not limited to, a sports arena, stadium, racetrack, tourist attraction, amusement park, or pari-mutuel facility, the construction or expansion of which:
1. For single performance facilities:
a. Provides parking spaces for more than 2,500 cars; or
b. Provides more than 10,000 permanent seats for spectators.

2. For serial performance facilities:
a. Provides parking spaces for more than 1,000 cars; or
b. Provides more than 4,000 permanent seats for spectators.
For purposes of this subsection, “serial performance facilities” means those using their parking areas or permanent seating more than one time per day on a regular or continuous basis.


(c) Office development.—Any proposed office building or park operated under common ownership, development plan, or management that:
1. Encompasses 300,000 or more square feet of gross floor area; or
2. Encompasses more than 600,000 square feet of gross floor area in a county with a population greater than 500,000 and only in a geographic area specifically designated as highly suitable for increased threshold intensity in the approved local comprehensive plan.

(d) Retail and service development.—Any proposed retail, service, or wholesale business establishment or group of establishments which deals primarily with the general public onsite, operated under one common property ownership, development plan, or management that:
1. Encompasses more than 400,000 square feet of gross area; or
2. Provides parking spaces for more than 2,500 cars.

(e) Recreational vehicle development.—Any proposed recreational vehicle development planned to create or accommodate 500 or more spaces.
(f) Multiuse development.—Any proposed development with two or more land uses where the sum of the percentages of the appropriate thresholds identified in chapter 28-24, Florida Administrative Code, or this section for each land use in the development is equal to or greater than 145 percent. Any proposed development with three or more land uses, one of which is residential and contains at least 100 dwelling units or 15 percent of the applicable residential threshold, whichever is greater, where the sum of the percentages of the appropriate thresholds identified in chapter 28-24, Florida Administrative Code, or this section for each land use in the development is equal to or greater than 160 percent. This threshold is in addition to, and does not preclude, a development from being required to undergo development-of-regional-impact review under any other threshold.
(g) Residential development.—A rule may not be adopted concerning residential developments which treats a residential development in one county as being located in a less populated adjacent county unless more than 25 percent of the development is located within 2 miles or less of the less populated adjacent county. The residential thresholds of adjacent counties with less population and a lower threshold may not be controlling on any development wholly located within areas designated as rural areas of opportunity.
(h) Workforce housing.—The applicable guidelines for residential development and the residential component for multiuse development shall be increased by 50 percent where the developer demonstrates that at least 15 percent of the total residential dwelling units authorized within the development of regional impact will be dedicated to affordable workforce housing, subject to a recorded land use restriction that shall be for a period of not less than 20 years and that includes resale provisions to ensure long-term affordability for income-eligible homeowners and renters and provisions for the workforce housing to be commenced prior to the completion of 50 percent of the market rate dwelling. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “affordable workforce housing” means housing that is affordable to a person who earns less than 120 percent of the area median income, or less than 140 percent of the area median income if located in a county in which the median purchase price for a single-family existing home exceeds the statewide median purchase price of a single-family existing home. For the purposes of this paragraph, the term “statewide median purchase price of a single-family existing home” means the statewide purchase price as determined in the Florida Sales Report, Single-Family Existing Homes, released each January by the Florida Association of Realtors and the University of Florida Real Estate Research Center.
(i) Schools.—
1. The proposed construction of any public, private, or proprietary postsecondary educational campus which provides for a design population of more than 5,000 full-time equivalent students, or the proposed physical expansion of any public, private, or proprietary postsecondary educational campus having such a design population that would increase the population by at least 20 percent of the design population.
2. As used in this paragraph, “full-time equivalent student” means enrollment for 15 or more quarter hours during a single academic semester. In career centers or other institutions which do not employ semester hours or quarter hours in accounting for student participation, enrollment for 18 contact hours shall be considered equivalent to one quarter hour, and enrollment for 27 contact hours shall be considered equivalent to one semester hour.
3. This paragraph does not apply to institutions which are the subject of a campus master plan adopted by the university board of trustees pursuant to s. 1013.30.


(2) STATUTORY EXEMPTIONS.—The following developments are exempt from s. 380.06:
(a) Any proposed hospital.
(b) Any proposed electrical transmission line or electrical power plant.
(c) Any proposed addition to an existing sports facility complex if the addition meets the following characteristics:
1. It would not operate concurrently with the scheduled hours of operation of the existing facility;
2. Its seating capacity would be no more than 75 percent of the capacity of the existing facility; and
3. The sports facility complex property was owned by a public body before July 1, 1983.
This exemption does not apply to any pari-mutuel facility as defined in s. 550.002.

(d) Any proposed addition or cumulative additions subsequent to July 1, 1988, to an existing sports facility complex owned by a state university, if the increased seating capacity of the complex is no more than 30 percent of the capacity of the existing facility.
(e) Any addition of permanent seats or parking spaces for an existing sports facility located on property owned by a public body before July 1, 1973, if future additions do not expand existing permanent seating or parking capacity more than 15 percent annually in excess of the prior year’s capacity.
(f) Any increase in the seating capacity of an existing sports facility having a permanent seating capacity of at least 50,000 spectators, provided that such an increase does not increase permanent seating capacity by more than 5 percent per year and does not exceed a total of 10 percent in any 5-year period. The sports facility must notify the appropriate local government within which the facility is located of the increase at least 6 months before the initial use of the increased seating in order to permit the appropriate local government to develop a traffic management plan for the traffic generated by the increase. Any traffic management plan must be consistent with the local comprehensive plan, the regional policy plan, and the state comprehensive plan.
(g) Any expansion in the permanent seating capacity or additional improved parking facilities of an existing sports facility, if the following conditions exist:

1.a. The sports facility had a permanent seating capacity on January 1, 1991, of at least 41,000 spectator seats;
b. The sum of such expansions in permanent seating capacity does not exceed a total of 10 percent in any 5-year period and does not exceed a cumulative total of 20 percent for any such expansions; or
c. The increase in additional improved parking facilities is a one-time addition and does not exceed 3,500 parking spaces serving the sports facility; and

2. The local government having jurisdiction over the sports facility includes in the development order or development permit approving such expansion under this paragraph a finding of fact that the proposed expansion is consistent with the transportation, water, sewer, and stormwater drainage provisions of the approved local comprehensive plan and local land development regulations relating to those provisions.
Any owner or developer who intends to rely on this statutory exemption shall provide to the state land planning agency a copy of the local government application for a development permit. Within 45 days after receipt of the application, the state land planning agency shall render to the local government an advisory and nonbinding opinion, in writing, stating whether, in the state land planning agency’s opinion, the prescribed conditions exist for an exemption under this paragraph. The local government shall render the development order approving each such expansion to the state land planning agency. The owner, developer, or state land planning agency may appeal the local government development order pursuant to s. 380.07 within 45 days after the order is rendered. The scope of review shall be limited to the determination of whether the conditions prescribed in this paragraph exist. If any sports facility expansion undergoes development-of-regional-impact review, all previous expansions that were exempt under this paragraph must be included in the development-of-regional-impact review.

(h) Expansion to port harbors, spoil disposal sites, navigation channels, turning basins, harbor berths, and other related inwater harbor facilities of the ports specified in s. 403.021(9)(b), port transportation facilities and projects listed in s. 311.07(3)(b), and intermodal transportation facilities identified pursuant to s. 311.09(3) when such expansions, projects, or facilities are consistent with port master plans and are in compliance with s. 163.3178.
(i) Any proposed facility for the storage of any petroleum product or any expansion of an existing facility.
(j) Any renovation or redevelopment within the same parcel as the existing development if such renovation or redevelopment does not change land use or increase density or intensity of use.
(k) Waterport and marina development, including dry storage facilities.
(l) Any proposed development within an urban service area boundary established under s. 163.3177(14), Florida Statutes 2010, that is not otherwise exempt pursuant to subsection (3), if the local government having jurisdiction over the area where the development is proposed has adopted the urban service area boundary and has entered into a binding agreement with jurisdictions that would be impacted and with the Department of Transportation regarding the mitigation of impacts on state and regional transportation facilities.
(m) Any proposed development within a rural land stewardship area created under s. 163.3248.
(n) The establishment, relocation, or expansion of any military installation as specified in s. 163.3175.
(o) Any self-storage warehousing that does not allow retail or other services.
(p) Any proposed nursing home or assisted living facility.
(q) Any development identified in an airport master plan and adopted into the comprehensive plan pursuant to s. 163.3177(6)(b)4.
(r) Any development identified in a campus master plan and adopted pursuant to s. 1013.30.
(s) Any development in a detailed specific area plan prepared and adopted pursuant to s. 163.3245.
(t) Any proposed solid mineral mine and any proposed addition to, expansion of, or change to an existing solid mineral mine. A mine owner must, however, enter into a binding agreement with the Department of Transportation to mitigate impacts to strategic intermodal system facilities. Proposed changes to any previously approved solid mineral mine development-of-regional-impact development orders having vested rights are not subject to further review or approval as a development-of-regional-impact or notice-of-proposed-change review or approval pursuant to s. 380.06(7), except for those applications pending as of July 1, 2011, which are governed by s. 380.115(2). Notwithstanding this requirement, pursuant to s. 380.115(1), a previously approved solid mineral mine development-of-regional-impact development order continues to have vested rights and continues to be effective unless rescinded by the developer. All local government regulations of proposed solid mineral mines are applicable to any new solid mineral mine or to any proposed addition to, expansion of, or change to an existing solid mineral mine.
(u) Notwithstanding any provision in an agreement with or among a local government, regional agency, or the state land planning agency or in a local government’s comprehensive plan to the contrary, a project no longer subject to development-of-regional-impact review under the revised thresholds specified in s. 380.06(2)(b) and this section.
(v) Any development within a county that has a research and education authority created by special act and which is also within a research and development park that is operated or managed by a research and development authority pursuant to part V of chapter 159.
(w) Any development in an energy economic zone designated pursuant to s. 377.809 upon approval by its local governing body.
If a use is exempt from review pursuant to paragraphs (a)-(u), but will be part of a larger project that is subject to review pursuant to s. 380.06(12), the impact of the exempt use must be included in the review of the larger project, unless such exempt use involves a development that includes a landowner, tenant, or user that has entered into a funding agreement with the state land planning agency under the Innovation Incentive Program and the agreement contemplates a state award of at least $50 million.

(3) EXEMPTIONS FOR DENSE URBAN LAND AREAS.—
(a) The following are exempt from the requirements of s. 380.06:
1. Any proposed development in a municipality having an average of at least 1,000 people per square mile of land area and a minimum total population of at least 5,000;
2. Any proposed development within a county, including the municipalities located therein, having an average of at least 1,000 people per square mile of land area and the development is located within an urban service area as defined in s. 163.3164 which has been adopted into the comprehensive plan as defined in s. 163.3164;
3. Any proposed development within a county, including the municipalities located therein, having a population of at least 900,000 and an average of at least 1,000 people per square mile of land area, but which does not have an urban service area designated in the comprehensive plan; and
4. Any proposed development within a county, including the municipalities located therein, having a population of at least 1 million and the development is located within an urban service area as defined in s. 163.3164 which has been adopted into the comprehensive plan.
The Office of Economic and Demographic Research within the Legislature shall annually calculate the population and density criteria needed to determine which jurisdictions meet the density criteria in subparagraphs 1.-4. by using the most recent land area data from the decennial census conducted by the Bureau of the Census of the United States Department of Commerce and the latest available population estimates determined pursuant to s. 186.901. If any local government has had an annexation, contraction, or new incorporation, the Office of Economic and Demographic Research shall determine the population density using the new jurisdictional boundaries as recorded in accordance with s. 171.091. The Office of Economic and Demographic Research shall annually submit to the state land planning agency by July 1 a list of jurisdictions that meet the total population and density criteria. The state land planning agency shall publish the list of jurisdictions on its website within 7 days after the list is received. The designation of jurisdictions that meet the criteria of subparagraphs 1.-4. is effective upon publication on the state land planning agency’s website. If a municipality that has previously met the criteria no longer meets the criteria, the state land planning agency must maintain the municipality on the list and indicate the year the jurisdiction last met the criteria. However, any proposed development of regional impact not within the established boundaries of a municipality at the time the municipality last met the criteria must meet the requirements of this section until the municipality as a whole meets the criteria. Any county that meets the criteria must remain on the list. Any jurisdiction that was placed on the dense urban land area list before June 2, 2011, must remain on the list.

(b) If a municipality that does not qualify as a dense urban land area pursuant to paragraph (a) designates any of the following areas in its comprehensive plan, any proposed development within the designated area is exempt from s. 380.06 unless otherwise required by part II of chapter 163:
1. Urban infill as defined in s. 163.3164;
2. Community redevelopment areas as defined in s. 163.340;
3. Downtown revitalization areas as defined in s. 163.3164;
4. Urban infill and redevelopment under s. 163.2517; or
5. Urban service areas as defined in s. 163.3164 or areas within a designated urban service area boundary pursuant to s. 163.3177(14), Florida Statutes 2010.

(c) If a county that does not qualify as a dense urban land area designates any of the following areas in its comprehensive plan, any proposed development within the designated area is exempt from the development-of-regional-impact process:
1. Urban infill as defined in s. 163.3164;
2. Urban infill and redevelopment pursuant to s. 163.2517; or
3. Urban service areas as defined in s. 163.3164.

(d) If any portion of the development is located in an area that is not exempt from review under s. 380.06, the development must undergo review pursuant to that section.
(e) In an area that is exempt under paragraphs (a), (b), and (c), any previously approved development-of-regional-impact development orders shall continue to be effective. However, the developer has the option to be governed by s. 380.115(1).
(f) If a local government qualifies as a dense urban land area under this subsection and is subsequently found to be ineligible for designation as a dense urban land area, any development located within that area which has a complete, pending application for authorization to commence development shall maintain the exemption if the developer is continuing the application process in good faith or the development is approved.
(g) This subsection does not limit or modify the rights of any person to complete any development that has been authorized as a development of regional impact pursuant to this chapter.
(h) This subsection does not apply to areas:
1. Within the boundary of any area of critical state concern designated pursuant to s. 380.05;
2. Within the boundary of the Wekiva Study Area as described in s. 369.316; or
3. Within 2 miles of the boundary of the Everglades Protection Area as defined in s. 373.4592.


(4) PARTIAL STATUTORY EXEMPTIONS.—
(a) If the binding agreement referenced under paragraph (2)(l) for urban service boundaries is not entered into within 12 months after establishment of the urban service area boundary, the review pursuant to s. 380.06(12) for projects within the urban service area boundary must address transportation impacts only.
(b) If the binding agreement referenced under paragraph (2)(m) for rural land stewardship areas is not entered into within 12 months after the designation of a rural land stewardship area, the review pursuant to s. 380.06(12) for projects within the rural land stewardship area must address transportation impacts only.
(c) If the binding agreement for designated urban infill and redevelopment areas is not entered into within 12 months after the designation of the area or July 1, 2007, whichever occurs later, the review pursuant to s. 380.06(12) for projects within the urban infill and redevelopment area must address transportation impacts only.
(d) A local government that does not wish to enter into a binding agreement or that is unable to agree on the terms of the agreement referenced under paragraph (2)(l) or paragraph (2)(m) must provide written notification to the state land planning agency of the decision to not enter into a binding agreement or the failure to enter into a binding agreement within the 12-month period referenced in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c). Following the notification of the state land planning agency, a review pursuant to s. 380.06(12) for projects within an urban service area boundary under paragraph (2)(l), or a rural land stewardship area under paragraph (2)(m), must address transportation impacts only.
(e) The vesting provision of s. 163.3167(5) relating to an authorized development of regional impact does not apply to those projects partially exempt from s. 380.06 under paragraphs (a)-(d).

History.—s. 46, ch. 85-55; s. 16, ch. 86-191; s. 3, ch. 88-164; s. 3, ch. 89-375; s. 3, ch. 89-536; s. 2, ch. 93-135; ss. 54, 55, ch. 93-206; ss. 347, 482, ch. 94-356; s. 13, ch. 95-149; s. 10, ch. 95-322; s. 4, ch. 95-412; s. 12, ch. 96-416; s. 93, ch. 98-200; s. 31, ch. 2002-296; s. 973, ch. 2002-387; s. 31, ch. 2004-357; s. 13, ch. 2006-69; s. 9, ch. 2006-220; s. 9, ch. 2007-198; s. 18, ch. 2008-240; s. 55, ch. 2011-139; s. 41, ch. 2014-218; s. 8, ch. 2016-148; s. 3, ch. 2018-158; s. 51, ch. 2019-3; s. 38, ch. 2021-271.

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