Zoning & HOAs in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale Metro (FL)
- 1. Zoning: two counties, dozens of separate governments
- 2. Incorporated cities vs. unincorporated area
- 3. HOA law: Florida's Homeowners' Association Act
- 4. Condo law: Chapter 718 and the post-Surfside safety overhaul
- 5. Governance character, area by area
- 6. Where to check a specific address
- 7. How we keep this page current
1. Zoning: two counties, dozens of separate governments
Miami-Dade and Broward have no single unified metro-wide zoning authority -- each county maintains its own zoning code and planning department, and every one of Miami-Dade's 34 municipalities and Broward's 31 maintains its own separate zoning code on top of (or instead of) the county's. Miami-Dade's own zoning regulations are codified in Chapter 33 of the Miami-Dade County Code, administered by the county's Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources; incorporated cities inside the county -- Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah, Doral, and the rest -- run entirely separate zoning codes, genuinely different legal documents from the county's own. Broward County similarly maintains a countywide Land Use Plan that every municipality's own zoning must generally conform to, while each city still administers its own code day to day.
Confirm any specific parcel's current zoning directly with the relevant city or county planning department rather than relying on this page for more than the structural picture: Miami-Dade County's Zoning and Development Services (miamidade.gov/zoning), and each municipality's own Planning & Zoning or Community Development department.
2. Incorporated cities vs. unincorporated area -- the sharpest Miami-Dade/Broward contrast?Municipality counts and the unincorporated-area population share change slowly but do change (annexations, new incorporations) -- confirm the current count directly with each county before citing it as a fixed number.
This is the single biggest structural difference between the two counties, and it determines who a resident actually calls about zoning, permitting, code enforcement, and often police and fire service. Miami-Dade County has operated a two-tier government since 1957: 34 incorporated municipalities each run their own city government, while roughly 44% of county residents live in unincorporated areas -- heavily urbanized in many cases, not rural -- governed directly by the county commission and county departments rather than a city hall. Unincorporated-area residents pay a separate UMSA (Unincorporated Municipal Service Area) tax that funds county-provided municipal-type services -- police, fire, zoning, water and sewer -- in place of a city's own levy.
Broward County is structured almost the opposite way: 31 incorporated municipalities cover nearly all of the county's populated land, and the unincorporated remainder is small and mostly non-residential -- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Port Everglades, the Seminole Hollywood Indian Reservation, landfills, and a handful of small residual parcels, plus a few small unincorporated residential pockets served through the Broward Municipal Services District. In practice, a Broward relocation almost always means dealing with one specific city government for zoning and permitting, while a Miami-Dade relocation might mean either a city government or the county itself, depending on the exact address. See our relocating guide for how this split shapes the two counties' broader character.
Sources: Miami-Dade County government structure and municipality count (miamidade.gov; Wikipedia, "Government of Miami-Dade County"); Broward County municipality count and unincorporated-area structure (Wikipedia, "Broward County, Florida"; Broward County Municipal Services District materials).
3. HOA law: Florida's Homeowners' Association Act
Florida governs most homeowners associations through the Homeowners' Association Act, Chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes -- a comprehensive framework covering board elections, budgets, assessment and lien authority, meeting notice, and members' right to inspect association records. A specific, concrete protection worth knowing: under Fla. Stat. §720.401, a seller (or developer) in an HOA-covered community must give a prospective buyer a disclosure summary -- covering mandatory membership, assessment obligations, any special-assessment or lien authority, and the developer's right to amend covenants -- before the purchase contract is signed. If that disclosure isn't provided in time, the buyer generally has the right to void the contract by written notice within three days of receiving it (or before closing, whichever comes first), a right that can't be waived and that ends at closing. This specific disclosure requirement does not apply to condominiums, cooperatives, or mobile home parks, which are governed by their own separate chapters (see Section 4).
Unlike some states, Florida does not maintain a single public database of every HOA-covered property; the authoritative source for whether a specific address carries HOA obligations, and what they are, remains the property's own recorded declaration of covenants, available through the relevant county's Clerk of Court, plus the community's management company or board for current dues and rules.
Sources: Fla. Stat. Ch. 720 and §720.401 (flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/720.401).
4. Condo law: Chapter 718 and the post-Surfside safety overhaul
Florida condominiums are governed separately, under Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes -- covering association governance, budgets, records, and, since 2021, a substantially rewritten set of building-safety requirements. This matters more directly in Miami-Dade and Broward than in almost any other Florida metro: the two counties together hold one of the state's largest concentrations of aging coastal mid- and high-rise condo buildings, the same building type at the center of the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, a Miami-Dade municipality.
Following that collapse, Florida enacted SB 4-D (2022), amended by HB 913 (2025), requiring Milestone structural inspections and Structural Integrity Reserve Studies (SIRS) for condo and co-op buildings three stories or taller, along with mandatory reserve funding for the structural components a SIRS identifies. We cover the full mechanics, deadlines, and budget impact in detail in Section 7 of our property tax guide rather than repeating them here -- that page is this metro's canonical SB 4-D explainer, and every neighborhood guide across Miami-Dade and Broward links back to it. The short version for a governance page: expect a specific building's inspection and reserve status to matter as much as its HOA/condo-association bylaws when you're evaluating a purchase.
Sources: Fla. Stat. Ch. 718 and §553.899; Thornton Tomasetti, "Florida SB 4-D Building Safety Law" (thorntontomasetti.com/florida-sb4d-building-safety-law).
5. Governance character, area by area
Where a specific area's current HOA-coverage share or local historic-district design-review authority couldn't be independently confirmed, it's flagged as unconfirmed below rather than guessed at -- worth a direct check with the relevant planning department before you rely on it.
| Guide area | Governance character |
|---|---|
| Downtown Miami, Brickell, Edgewater, Wynwood, Design District | City of Miami zoning code; dense condo/rental-association governance throughout, with Section 4's SB 4-D reserve rules a real factor for Brickell and Edgewater's older waterfront towers specifically -- Wynwood and the Design District's building stock skews newer |
| Coral Gables, Coconut Grove | Separately incorporated City of Coral Gables (1925), with its own strict Mediterranean-style architectural design-review board covering exterior changes citywide; Coconut Grove is a City of Miami neighborhood with its own local historic districts |
| South Beach, Mid-Beach, North Beach (City of Miami Beach) | South Beach's Art Deco Historic District carries strict design-review authority; SB 4-D's Milestone/SIRS rules are a significant factor across much of Miami Beach's older beachfront condo stock |
| Doral, Miami Lakes | Separately incorporated cities; heavily HOA-governed master-planned development, consistent with most of their housing stock having been built since the 1980s-2000s |
| Hialeah | Separately incorporated city (one of Florida's largest by population) with its own zoning code, distinct from Miami-Dade County's |
| Kendall, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Cutler Bay, Homestead | Kendall is unincorporated Miami-Dade (county zoning and UMSA services); Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Cutler Bay, and Homestead are each separately incorporated, generally suburban and HOA-governed |
| Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, North Miami, North Miami Beach | Each separately incorporated; a dense waterfront and Intracoastal high-rise condo corridor where Section 4's SB 4-D reserve rules are a significant, recurring factor |
| Key Biscayne | Separately incorporated Village of Key Biscayne; island geography raises the practical stakes of the flood risk and insurance costs discussed in our relocating guide |
| Little Havana, Little Haiti | City of Miami neighborhoods; historically lower-rise housing stock with mixed HOA coverage; whether either carries binding local historic-district design-review authority beyond individually listed structures couldn't be independently confirmed |
| Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, Hollywood | Each a separately incorporated city (Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, Hollywood); Fort Lauderdale's canal-front lots carry additional dock and waterway regulation layered on top of standard zoning |
| Weston, Parkland, Coral Springs, Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, Plantation, Davie, Miramar | Each a separately incorporated Broward city; heavily HOA-governed master-planned suburban subdivisions, the dominant development pattern across Broward's western half |
6. Where to check a specific address
- Any of Miami-Dade's 34 incorporated cities, or Broward's 31: that city's own Planning & Zoning or Community Development department
- Unincorporated Miami-Dade: Miami-Dade County's Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (miamidade.gov/zoning)
- Any address's HOA status or recorded declaration: the relevant county's Clerk of Court
- Any condo association's Milestone inspection or SIRS status: the association itself, and the Florida DBPR's condominium division
7. How we keep this page current
The structural mechanics in Sections 1 through 3 (Florida's county-and-municipality zoning system, and Chapter 720's HOA framework including its buyer-disclosure requirement) are settled state law and don't change often. Chapter 718's post-Surfside condo safety rules referenced in Section 4 -- covered in full in our property tax guide -- have already been amended once (HB 913 in 2025) and remain a genuinely fast-moving area; recheck current inspection and reserve-funding deadlines before relying on this page for a specific building. The area-by-area table in Section 5 reflects what we could and couldn't confirm as of September 2026 -- we plan to close those gaps in a future update rather than publish a guess. If you spot something on this page that's changed, or notice a broken link, we'd like to know -- see our contact information.