Most people evaluating an ALF property start by asking, "What is the zoning?" In unincorporated Jackson County, that is not quite the right question. Jackson County expressly says it does not use traditional zoning districts. Instead, the Future Land Use map and policies in the Comprehensive Plan co...

Indian River County is one of those places where the address, resident capacity, and emergency-planning assumptions all need to be settled before I would call a property an ALF candidate. The county contains five incorporated municipalities, maintains a detailed zoning and development-review system ...

If you are considering an assisted living facility in Holmes County, do not let the word "rural" convince you that the local approval side will be simple. Holmes County does not handle unincorporated land the way a heavily zoned metro county does. The county says it uses Future Land Use Districts to...

If you are looking at a Hillsborough County property for an assisted living facility, the county name alone does not tell you what approval path you are buying into. A Tampa address, a Plant City address, a Temple Terrace address, and a property in unincorporated Hillsborough can sit in the same cou...

If you are researching how to open an ALF in Highlands County, I would start with the parcel, not the license application. Highlands gives you a good reason to do that: its land-development rules can test the location itself, not just the proposed use.

Florida still requires the local zoning docume...

If you are researching how to open an ALF in Hernando County, I would not begin with the AHCA application. I would begin with the property and ask a harder question: Can this exact building, at this exact address, support the ALF I intend to license?

Florida licensing law requires local zoning docu...