Dade City adopts comprehensive plan amendments on second reading after multi-year update

The Dade City Commission adopted Ordinance 2024-09 on second reading by a 5–0 vote to update the city’s comprehensive plan, concluding a multi-year evaluation and appraisal process and incorporating state comments and recommended text changes.

The ordinance modifies elements of the comprehensive plan and transmits updates required under section 163.3191, Florida statutes, the city clerk read at the hearing. Tara Salmera of Plan Active Studio summarized the multi-year process, the joint workshops with the commission and planning board, the state review timeline and the changes made to address state objections and comments.

Why it matters: the comprehensive plan governs long-range land use, density and intensity standards for the city and is the framework that guides zoning, capital planning and concurrency. Salmera said the update addresses items the state flagged during its review and aligns land-use intensity charts with zoning compatibility to reduce inconsistencies.

Key points from staff and staff-contractor testimony included a corrected title page date, resolution of a solid-waste policy discrepancy that the state initially missed, confirmation that a water-supply plan had been completed, and updates to density/intensity and floor-area-ratio (FAR) tables. Salmera described three new residential zoning district labels to be introduced in compatibility charts: RSCE (residential country estates), RSE (residential estate) and an updated PD Conservation Subdivision (PDCS) notation; she said numeric unit-per-acre figures are not embedded in the comp plan and can be set through future zoning actions.

Public comment focused on concerns about a specific change to the future land-use chart. Nancy McKnight (address stated) asked why the word “detached” was removed from the Low Density Residential description and warned that removing “detached” could allow attached housing forms to be placed where single-family detached homes had traditionally been envisioned. Salmera and staff responded that striking the word does not remove the ability to zone for detached housing, that existing zoning districts remain available, and that removal was intended to avoid internal inconsistencies between the comp plan and zoning designations.

Commission discussion touched on the history of workshops, the state transmittal process that began in November 2024 and the timeline for Department of Commerce review; staff noted the city transmitted materials to the state on 11/19/2024 and that the Department of Commerce issued an objections, recommendations and comments report on 01/17/2025 that staff addressed in the current draft.

Following a motion and second, the commission voted 5–0 in a roll-call to adopt Ordinance 2024-09 on its second reading. Staff will transmit the adopted amendments to the state agency within the 10-day window and the package will be subject to a 30-day period during which affected parties may file petitions to the Department of Administrative Hearings.