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Council hears overview of CIMD overlay and questions about its impact on affordable housing
Summary
Development staff reviewed the Commercial/Industrial Multifamily Development (CIMD) overlay created under the Live Local Act (30‑year affordability covenant, 10–25 units/acre depending on affordability), noting a 2,500‑unit cap (Tri‑Rail exempt); council members pressed staff on how CIMD approvals affect affordable housing totals and level‑of‑service impacts.
Development Services Director Mr. Shadd briefed the City Council on the CIMD overlay, a local ordinance enacted to implement parts of Florida's Live Local Act. Shadd said the CIMD program allows multifamily residential on properties designated Planned Mobility or Enhanced Mobility and zoned commercial or industrial, provided the site does not abut existing single‑family zones and it meets nonresidential proximity tests or on‑site nonresidential requirements.
Shadd summarized key rules: the ordinance includes a unit cap of 2,500 dwelling units (with Tri‑Rail station projects exempted), a maximum 1.0 FAR with limited exemptions, a maximum height of 85 feet, minimum 25% open/green space, and a minimum affordable set‑aside of 10% (with an additional workforce band increasing density allowances to 25 units per acre when the project provides 15% affordable/workforce units combined). Affordability commitments are enforced with a 30‑year deed restriction template, Shadd said. Staff also described automatic parking reductions tied to transit proximity and transportation demand‑management measures.
Councilmembers asked how many CIMD units have been approved and how CIMD compares with Live Local projects (which require a higher affordable share). Mr. Shadd said approximately 2,176 CIMD units had been approved or were pending in the system at the time of his slides, and he confirmed no Live Local projects had been approved yet. Councilmember Perlman and others pressed whether a future council could increase the unit bank; staff said the cap and exemptions are legislative decisions and future councils could modify the program subject to comprehensive‑plan constraints.
On infrastructure, staff said sanitary sewer and water capacity were sufficient and that traffic posed the greatest challenge; staff described mitigation tools including multimodal network improvements, signal upgrades and additional transit investments. Shadd said preliminary analysis of 1,000 additional units would translate into roughly two additional police officers (at current service levels) and approximately 122 additional fire/rescue calls per year, and that schools would likely manage through boundary adjustments.
Councilmembers requested additional, city‑wide level‑of‑service analysis and said they would review the CIMD details further before any policy changes.
