A new wave of building units is officially heading to the Florida Keys at the start of 2026.
Out of 900 new units greenlit by Senate Bill 180, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June, an initial batch of 300 will be available for distribution by Keys governments starting Jan. 1. Following the 10-year timeline set forth in the bill, a new group of 150 units will then be released every two years, reaching the full quota by 2035.
New units will be proportionally split among Keys governments based on the number of vacant buildable lots in each, prioritizing owner-occupied affordable and workforce housing – 72 for Islamorada, 36 for Key West, 135 for Marathon and 657 for unincorporated Monroe County over the next decade.
While SB 180 passed at the close of Florida’s 2025 legislative session, Keys governments have effectively been in limbo for the last six months over the logistics of accepting and distributing the new units, made possible by increasing the mandated hurricane evacuation time for Keys residents from 24 to 24.5 hours.
The uncertainty was finally answered in a Dec. 17 meeting of DeSantis and his Cabinet, during which the Administration Commission approved a recommendation for distributing the new rights by Florida Secretary of Commerce Alex Kelly.
The group gave direction to the Florida Department of Commerce to collaborate with each Keys government to modify their comprehensive plans and land development regulations, if needed, to accept the new units. Some jurisdictions, like Marathon, have language already inserted that allows for acceptance of new units approved by the Florida Legislature. Others have amendments already underway.
As currently written, SB 180 restricts the new rights to just one per vacant buildable lot, calling into question the feasibility of affordable housing projects like duplexes or multifamily developments. The number of lots left available to build is still a slight point of contention, as analyses conducted by the Department of Commerce and Keys governments point to 1,610 or 1,700 eligible parcels, respectively.
Individual governments are now tasked with setting their own rate of distribution for the new units, following months and years of slowing new building rights to a trickle. The Department of Commerce memo acknowledged that 636 unused building rights, including 363 designated early-evacuation workforce housing units, are also still available for use, the majority of which belong to unincorporated Monroe.
