11.4 Subdividing & Land Development: Plats, Site Plans, Impact Fees & Deed Restrictions

11.4 Subdividing & Land Development: Plats, Site Plans, Impact Fees & Deed Restrictions

Core Principle: Content Area IX, Zoning and Planning, lists Subdividing and Development of Land alongside zoning and wetlands. Sections 11.1 and 11.2 covered comprehensive planning and zoning. This section covers the process by which raw acreage becomes recorded, buildable lots — and the private restrictions that govern them afterwards.

---

1. From Acreage to Lots

  1. FEASIBILITY & DUE DILIGENCE
     Title, survey, wetlands delineation, soils, environmental site assessment,
     utility availability, comprehensive plan future land use designation
              |
  2. LAND USE ENTITLEMENT
     Comprehensive plan amendment if the future land use category does not
     already permit the proposed use; then rezoning or PUD approval
              |
  3. PRELIMINARY PLAT / SITE PLAN
     Lot layout, street alignment, drainage, utilities, open space; reviewed
     by staff and the Local Planning Agency; concurrency evaluated
              |
  4. CONSTRUCTION PLANS & PERMITS
     Engineering approval; Water Management District and DEP permits;
     Army Corps permit where wetlands are affected
              |
  5. IMPROVEMENTS INSTALLED OR BONDED
     Streets, drainage, water, sewer, sidewalks - either built before final
     plat approval or guaranteed by a performance bond or letter of credit
              |
  6. FINAL PLAT
     Prepared and certified by a professional surveyor and mapper (Ch. 177);
     approved by the governing body; DEDICATIONS accepted
              |
  7. RECORDING
     Plat recorded in the county PLAT BOOK; lots may now be conveyed by
     lot-and-block legal description
              |
  8. DECLARATION OF COVENANTS RECORDED
     Private restrictions and the association take effect

---

2. The Plat

A plat is a recorded map dividing land into lots, blocks, streets, and easements. Under Chapter 177, Florida Statutes, a plat offered for recording must be prepared and certified by a professional surveyor and mapper, must meet detailed content requirements, and must be approved by the local governing body before the clerk may record it.

Once recorded, the plat becomes the reference for a lot and block legal description — Lot 14, Block C, Sabal Palm Estates, according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 92, Page 41, of the Public Records of Lee County, Florida. That description is precise, short, and self-updating, which is why platted subdivisions are conveyed this way rather than by metes and bounds.

Dedication

Recording a plat dedicates the streets, alleys, drainage tracts, and easements shown on it to public or common use. Two elements are required:

1. Offer — the owner's dedication, made by the plat and its dedication language; and
2. Acceptance — by the governing body, which is why plat approval and acceptance of dedications appear together on the agenda.

Without acceptance, the local government has no obligation to maintain the streets. This is the origin of the private-road subdivision, where the association maintains roads the county never accepted.

---

3. Subdivision Improvements and Exactions

Local subdivision regulations require the developer to install the infrastructure the new lots will need, and to guarantee it.

Impact Fees

An impact fee is a one-time charge on new development to fund the capital facilities the development makes necessary — roads, schools, parks, fire and police facilities, water and sewer capacity. It is not a tax on the use of the property and is not intended to fund operating costs.

F.S. 163.31801, the Florida Impact Fee Act, constrains local governments. Among its requirements, an impact fee must be based on the most recent and localized data, must be accounted for separately, may not be used to cover existing deficiencies, and increases are subject to statutory limitations and phase-in and notice requirements. A developer challenging an exaction generally argues that it fails the constitutional tests of an essential nexus between the exaction and the impact, and rough proportionality between the exaction's extent and the development's impact.

Concurrency

Florida's concurrency requirement, introduced in Section 11.1, bites hardest at the subdivision stage: the public facilities and services needed to support the development must be available concurrent with the impacts of the development, or the development order must be denied, phased, or conditioned.

---

4. Planned Unit Development

A planned unit development (PUD) is a zoning district negotiated for a specific project rather than drawn from the standard district schedule. It trades flexibility for commitment.

Because the PUD ordinance and master plan bind future owners, a broker listing a PUD lot must read them. A buyer who assumes the county zoning code controls may find that the approved master plan is far more restrictive.

---

5. Deed Restrictions and Restrictive Covenants

Once the subdivision exists, the developer records a declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs), creating private controls that run with the land and bind every successive owner.

[!IMPORTANT] The more restrictive control governs. If zoning permits a 35-foot building and the CC&Rs cap height at 28 feet, the owner may build to 28 feet. Zoning is a ceiling, not a grant of a right to build. Conversely, a covenant permitting something zoning forbids is worthless — the government control still applies.

Restrictions Florida Will Not Enforce

A restrictive covenant is a private contract, but it is not beyond public law. Racially restrictive covenants are unenforceable and void, and any covenant that discriminates on a protected basis under the federal Fair Housing Act or the Florida Fair Housing Act cannot be enforced. Old declarations in Florida subdivisions sometimes still contain such language on their face; it is a dead letter, and a licensee must never repeat or rely on it in marketing or in advising a buyer.

Homeowners' Association Disclosure

Where a buyer will be obligated to be a member of a homeowners' association governed by Chapter 720, Florida law requires that the buyer receive a disclosure summary before executing the contract, informing them of mandatory membership, assessments, and the association's enforcement powers. A contract that does not comply is voidable by the buyer within the period the statute allows.