Maximum size requirements and required inspections during home sales for downstairs enclosures in unincorporated Monroe County are no longer, according to a unanimous vote of the county commission at its Oct. 15 session.
The changes come via an ordinance to amend the floodplain management chapter of Monroe County’s land development code as the county shakes off a 23-year stint on, in staff’s own words from 2023, “FEMA’s naughty list.”
In 2002, the National Flood Insurance Program, overseen by FEMA, threatened to place unincorporated Monroe on probation due to a lack of enforcement of the county’s floodplain management ordinance. Specifically, a notice sent to Keys flood insurance policyholders noted large numbers of noncompliant enclosures built under elevated homes in flood hazard areas – many of which were illegally used as living quarters and posed a hazard should FEMA be asked to foot the bill for destroyed noncompliant spaces.
A portion of the county’s penance, to avoid the probation and potential withdrawal of disaster relief or insurance discounts, was to enter into an Implementation Plan – commonly known as the county’s remedial plan – including a jointly-developed downstairs enclosure inspection procedure.
Amendments to the plan in 2003, 2011 and 2014 continued to place strict requirements on downstairs enclosures – including, among other items, a maximum of 299 square feet of enclosed space below base flood elevation and inspections of enclosures upon transfer of property ownership.
But in early 2023, an agitated group of title companies, contractors and real estate agents pressed the county for a change, arguing that the newest version of the county floodplain ordinance was unnecessarily burdensome and contained new or rarely-enforced items.
Two days after a March 26 meeting with Monroe County Administrator Christine Hurley and staff, FEMA District IV regional administrator Robert Samaan signed a letter agreeing to eliminate the 2014 Implementation Plan.
“Monroe County has demonstrated compliance with the minimum standards of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), while also meeting the higher standards necessary for a Class 3 rating in the NFIP Community Rating System,” Samaan wrote, referencing the voluntary system used to provide tiered insurance discounts in exchange for flood damage reduction activities.
While the change eliminates the size restrictions for downstairs enclosures – putting the county on par with Islamorada and Marathon, which both skated around FEMA’s probation – use of the space is still limited to storage, parking and building access, Samaan’s letter reiterated.
He added that FEMA staff traveling to the Keys every six months on Community Assistance Visits for the Endangered Species Act will still choose a random sample of structures within the county to review, ensuring continued compliance.
In other action, the commission began the process of comprehensive plan and land development code amendments to redistribute a dwindling supply of building permits in unincorporated Monroe County.
The amendments could also allow the county to eventually accept around 588 of 900 new building rights for the Keys, greenlit during the 2025 state legislative session by Senate Bill 180. The bill, signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, allows for the extra units by raising the hurricane evacuation clearance time for the Keys from 24 to 24.5 hours. According to the bill, units will be split among Keys governments based on the number of vacant buildable lots in each jurisdiction.
County growth management director Emily Schemper told the commission that while it appears all 900 building rights will fit within the new 24.5-hour timeline, based on evacuation modeling run by the Florida Department of Commerce, staff has yet to receive clear guidance from Commerce or the governor’s office during recent meetings on whether the proposed amendments are the proper method to “accept” the new units.
The county’s supply of conventional Rate of Growth Ordinance (ROGO) building rights is set to expire in July of 2026, based on its recent distribution rate of 62 units per year – adding a layer of urgency behind amendments that will take upwards of six months to finalize. Also available to the county is a final pool of administrative relief allocations, reserved for use in extenuating circumstances outside of the traditional ROGO distribution.
Further muddying the waters is language in SB 180 that prohibits counties affected by recent hurricanes from adopting “more restrictive or burdensome” development code or comprehensive plan amendments – even as other portions of the same bill restrict the Keys’ new building rights to prioritize owner-occupied, workforce and affordable housing, with just one right allowed per vacant buildable lot.
At staff’s recommendation, and with the commission’s approval, the county will proceed with amendments containing parallel sets of language: one that would extend ROGO for an additional year by re-distributing 62 of the county’s available administrative relief units as market-rate rights, and another that would also allow for inclusion of the 588 new units from SB 180.
Doing so, staff said, could allow the amendments to conform to guidance given in the coming months by the governor’s cabinet, the state Administration Commission or new legislation from the 2026 state session before transmitting a final version to the state for approval in March 2026.
“The thing that bothers me is we’re being forced to operate in an environment, not without rules, but they’re vague and undefined, which is about the same as having no rules,” said commissioner David Rice. “I don’t know how you operate like that, but we seem to be getting a lot of practice.”
“I think we need to remind our leaders in Tallahassee that our language is law that was signed by the governor and implemented by an agency under the governor – the same agency that has limited our growth,” said commissioner Holly Raschein. “We need to be strong and play those cards, and use these next couple of months to get up there and educate.”
