Martin County is one of the clearest examples of why an ALF should be treated as a property-development project and an operating-license project at the same time. Carline's 2025 correspondence with the Florida Department of Health in Martin County required both a site plan and a floor plan before the local inspection request could move forward, and the utility approval changed depending on whether the facility used municipal service or a private well and septic.

At the same time, Martin County Emergency Management has one of the more structured public healthcare-plan review systems in Florida. ALFs submit both a CEMP and an Emergency Environmental Control Plan through the county's Accela portal. In other words, the county expects the building, utilities, evacuation context, fire documentation, and emergency operating plan to tell the same story.

Future Land Use and Zoning Both Matter

The Martin County Growth Management FAQ explains that unincorporated property has both a Future Land Use designation and a zoning designation, and that future land use is the broader policy framework. The county also directs applicants inside a municipality to the municipality for its rules. That makes jurisdiction and both map designations part of the first property review.

Martin's Urban Service District is another important planning context because it identifies areas intended for urban development and public facilities. I would not assume a rural-looking parcel can support the same facility model as a serviced urban parcel without checking land use, zoning, utilities, and access together.

Martin DOH Requires the Property to Be Drawn, Not Just Described

In the internal 2025 email, DOH-Martin told Carline that both a SITE plan and a FLOOR plan were required for its review. That is useful operationally because it forces the applicant to reconcile the parcel layout with the interior resident layout before the inspection request.

The local group-care form also asks about proposed licensed capacity, water and sewage type, and whether plans or applications have gone to zoning, building, planning, plumbing, and the fire authority. For facilities above the statewide food-service threshold, food permitting adds another plan-review layer.

Municipal Utilities and Private Systems Follow Different Evidence Paths

Martin's local municipal utility form asks the water/sewer supplier to indicate whether it approves or does not approve the proposed food service. For private well and septic, the local form calls for an evaluation of existing onsite system capacity.

The DOH email adds an important practical warning: if the well or septic system is too old for agency records, private inspections at the owner's expense may be required. That is the kind of risk I would want identified during the inspection period, not after closing.

Martin Publishes a Real Healthcare CEMP Workflow

Martin County Healthcare CEMP states that assisted living facilities must submit both the CEMP and EECP. Since January 1, 2024, submissions are made through Martin County Accela and hard copies are no longer accepted. The county also publishes plan-review fees and tells facilities to keep agreements and signatures current.

The local page identifies supporting items such as evacuation-zone and flood-zone information, distance to the St. Lucie nuclear plant, evacuation routes, and current fire documentation. That makes emergency planning part of property due diligence because the plan depends on where the facility sits and how it will evacuate.

The Best Martin County File Is Integrated

I would not manage Martin as separate folders called zoning, health department, and CEMP. I would manage one site: parcel jurisdiction and land use, licensed capacity, scaled site/floor plans, utility approval, building/fire feasibility, flood/evacuation context, and then the AHCA licensing package.

When those pieces agree early, the project moves with far less rework. When they conflict, you want to discover the conflict while you can still change the property or the plan.

Because Martin ties utilities directly to the building itself, it helps to review our Florida ALF construction and renovation rules. For the full statewide sequence, see How to Open an ALF in Florida.