Martin County Residents, Government Officials Express Concerns About Live Local Act Impact

STUART, Florida. Many Stuart residents tell WPTV they have concerns about the bill currently heading to the House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 102, also known as the Local Living Act, contains a clause that, if passed, appears to suggest that it would remove the power of local governments to limit the height and size of future buildings.

“We are totally against it,” said Hobe Sound resident Richard McAuley.

“I wouldn’t want towers built in our quaint little seaside village that will quickly become the next Broward County,” added Stuart resident Will Laughlin.

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Martin County currently has a comprehensive plan, developed in 1984, that limits the height of any building.

“The county has a four-story height limit that covers the entire county,” County Administrator Martin Don Donaldson said. “No matter where [the bill] applies if it allows height restrictions greater than four stories, that preempts our rules and that’s something we wouldn’t support.”

State Senator Gail Harrell, who is based in Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties, said that would not be a problem.

“This will not lead to high-rise buildings in Martin County,” Harrell said. “That’s four floors in Martin County, period.”

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Harrell said the bill only covers very low, low, moderate income, and workforce housing. She said that this did not apply to any of the future buildings.

Even then, Harrell said the bill meant that commercial and mixed-use areas in the county, such as those zoned only for single-level homes, would have to allow four-story affordable housing units to be built if a site was planned for the area. .

“Whatever is the highest elevation in the county and whatever is the highest elevation in the city,” Harrell said, adding that it depends on the jurisdiction of the local government.

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Harrell said the bill is meant to help solve the housing problem.

“Thousands of people move to Florida every day, and we want to make sure our citizens have somewhere to live,” Harrell said.

However, residents such as Macaulay and Laughlin said they were unsure, fearing both height growth and population growth.

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“I’m hoping there’s going to be some significant pushback,” Laughlin said, adding that he hopes the county gets to the root of the problem, which he says is the wage and housing issue.

“It exacerbates our concerns,” McAuley said. “You walk down the street and you see that houses are being built everywhere, and there will be at least two more cars in each apartment. This is going to be a madhouse.”

The bill has already passed the committee and is heading to the House of Representatives.