Florida Keys Real Estate

Buying land and building a home in the Florida Keys is a unique experience. The Florida Keys are a 120 mile string of islands located in Monroe County. The county is an area of Critical State-wide Concern. This means the area is so special the State of Florida has unusual stewardship responsibilities. The state has the final say on all sorts of land use and zoning matters.
One of the more unusual planning techniques is something called the Rate Of Growth Ordnance - known locally as ROGO.

ROGO limits how many homes can be built in the Florida Keys, and by homes they mean any livable unit such as a condominium unit, apartment, hotel room, trailer park space, small little shack by the road, or multi million dollar mansion on the ocean. Each one of those is counted as a residential unit and there is a limit on how many units can be built.

We are now fast approaching the maximum amount of units that can be built and when that Is reached there can be no more “new“ residential construction. Once the cap is reached you can tear down an old house and build a new one, but you cannot take vacant land and put a new home on vacant land.
Since the cap not been reached yet, you can still get a permit to build a new home on a vacant lot. However getting the permit is not so simple. Since there are more people who want to build a house than there are permits, there is competition to get the permit.
Points are awarded to each applicant based on a variety of environmental and other factors. The person with the most points goes to the top of the list and every quarter a certain number of permits are awarded from the list.
Simple right?
Well of course that just starts the process.