How Florida’s Live Local Act Led to Luxury Waterfront Condos Instead of Affordable Housing
Florida’s 2023 Live Local Act is drawing scrutiny as developers leverage state-level zoning exemptions to build luxury waterfront high-rises under the banner of affordable housing. While state lawmakers framed the 95-page legislation as a direct response to residents’ complaints about housing affordability, projects like the proposed Causeway Cove development in Fort Pierce illustrate a growing clash between state mandates and local infrastructure limits.
The Mechanics of Florida’s Live Local Act and the Fort Pierce Project
Passed by the Florida Legislature in 2023, the Live Local Act was designed to incentivize the construction of workforce and affordable housing by injecting state funding and low-interest loans into the market. According to reporting from Yahoo News, the legislation’s most contentious provision allows developers to bypass the usual local land-use review process. This exemption applies to residential or mixed-use projects situated on commercially or industrially zoned land, provided that at least 40% of the units are designated as affordable.
In Fort Pierce—a coastal community of approximately 50,000 residents located two hours north of Miami—a developer applied these provisions to propose the Causeway Cove project. Situated next door to a marina, hotel, convention center, and shopping area, the development features luxury high-rise condominiums and apartments reaching nearly 200 feet high. For a town where most existing structures stand no taller than 45 feet, the proposal represents a dramatic shift in local scale and aesthetic character.
Infrastructure Strains and Evacuation Bottlenecks on Hutchinson Island
Beyond aesthetic concerns, local leaders and residents point to public safety vulnerabilities tied to the location of the Causeway Cove project. According to Yahoo News, the high-rise complex sits at the foot of a bridge that’s one of the primary hurricane evacuation routes for Hutchinson Island. That barrier island currently houses more than 8,000 nearby residents.
Critics argue that injecting a high-density luxury development into a primary traffic choke point could be a matter of life and death in an emergency. Municipalities across the state face similar hurdles as state-sanctioned density increases collide with legacy infrastructure.
Sam Staley, director of the DeVoe Moore Center at Florida State University’s College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, noted in an interview with Jacksonville Today that Florida’s housing market has grown increasingly unaffordable, accelerating after the COVID-19 pandemic. Staley emphasized that the core issue is rooted in supply, noting that the state adds hundreds of thousands of people annually due to a federal constitutional prohibition on preventing other people from moving among the states.
“We can’t prevent people from moving to Florida,” Staley stated via Jacksonville Today, highlighting that the state must take demand as given while tackling structural supply constraints.
Stretching the Definition of Affordability for Workforce Housing
A central point of contention in the Live Local Act centers on how the state defines “affordable” housing. Under the statute, units qualify as affordable if they target households making up to 120% of the area’s median income. Based on Federal Reserve 2024 data for the county’s median income, Yahoo News reports this threshold equates to households earning roughly $88,000 annually, with actual income requirements projected to be higher by project completion.
This definition places qualifying units out of reach for many people who work service-oriented jobs in a town that caters heavily to tourists and retirees. As Staley observed in his analysis for Jacksonville Today, the market suffers from a big squeeze in workforce housing—specifically for households earning $60,000, $70,000, or $80,000 per year—because local planning and zoning, including “Not in My Backyard” opposition, have historically suppressed the construction of these housing categories.
As Florida continues to grapple with explosive population growth, the tension between state preemption laws and local community character highlights the ongoing difficulty of balancing rapid development with sustainable infrastructure.