Board backs targeted building‑permit moratorium for Florida Shores drainage basin to limit impervious surface

The Planning & Zoning Board recommended that the City Council impose a targeted building‑permit moratorium within the Florida Shores drainage basin designed to prevent new permits that increase impervious surface area while the city completes a stormwater master plan.

Development Services Director Ryan Solstice told the board this moratorium is narrower than the citywide pause: it would not be citywide but would prevent issuance of building permits that increase impervious surfaces within the defined Florida Shores drainage basin. "This is a building permit moratorium, that essentially the nexus is flooding," Solstice said, listing items such as new single‑family homes, additions, attached and detached garages, sheds, pools, driveways and patios as examples of work that could increase impervious area and worsen flooding.

Board members asked for an exhibit defining the basin and requested that staff provide clearer boundaries and maps for public review; Solstice said environmental services would refine the basin and that boundaries could change between first and second readings. Residents at the hearing asked whether ongoing subdivisions already under construction — including a nearby Volco Road project — would be affected; staff said projects with entitlements already approved would generally proceed but that, when a project’s final infrastructure is built, staff can enforce engineering deficiencies.

The board voted to forward a favorable recommendation to City Council with the understanding that staff will finalize basin mapping and refine the moratorium’s language before council readings.