‘Accessory dwelling units’ back on the table in Cape Coral
With legislation likely, council to revisit
The city of Cape Coral will revisit the topic of accessory dwelling units.
The action came last week when Cape Coral City Council approved the Local Housing Incentive Plan.
The State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program Act requires the approval of the Local Housing Incentive Plan on an annual basis. There are 11 incentives and recommendations that are reviewed.
With the city receiving State Housing Initiatives Partnership funds, it is required to establish an Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. The plan encourages the development of affordable housing in the city.
Among the recommendations approved are maintaining expedited permitting processes, maintaining both single-family impact fee deferral program and multi-family impact fee deferral program and maintaining existing incentive to administratively deviate from parking requirements and no changes to setbacks.
Accessory dwelling units – which are defined by Florida Statutes as “an ancillary or secondary living unit that has a separate kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping area existing either within the same structure, or on the same lot, as the primary dwelling unit.”
According to the plan, “recognizing he shortage of affordable rentals within the state of Florida, the legislature encouraged local governments to adopt ordinances to authorize the construction of accessory dwelling units within zoning districts that allow single family residential use. Further, these ordinances would require that the building permit application for an accessory dwelling unit be accompanied by an affidavit from the applicant attesting that the unit will be rented at a rate affordable to the targeted population.”
The plan also states that the use of ADUs were removed by the city council before approval in 2019 and, on July 31, 2024, the council directed staff not to move forward with ADUs.
Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra, who sits on the committee, said she whole heartily supports the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee report, which was approved by the Cape Coral City Council last week.
She said she is a huge supporter of the Accessory Dwelling Units, which was part of the report that had the recommendation of revisiting the topic.
“I was wondering, giving the pending legislation that could be coming up to mandate these, (if we should) add the ADU specific (topic) to a future COW to have that discussion. We may not have an option,” Nelson-Lastra said.
City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said with legislation still pending, and not knowing what the full outcome will be,council would be having a conversation without any finality at this point. He said if it passes — and he believes the governor will sign the legislation — or it is executable, the city can have a discussion and determine how to regulate and address the new statutory requirement.
“It’s too premature. I wouldn’t want us to waste our time,” Boksner said.
With that said, he said the city could ask its legislative lobbyist to try to get some additional language to get further control.
“This was brought up at the state level last year,” Councilmember Rachel Kaduk said. “Because we know what we know, we should stay ahead of it.”
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