Thirty-one cities, one county,
and a permit clock that never stops
From Fort Lauderdale’s downtown towers to the industrial corridors of Pompano and the barrier-island parcels along the coast, Broward is where a single site can answer to a city zoning code, a county land use plan, and a state housing preemption all at once. JDJ reads all three, and moves your project through them.
State Program
Live Local Act
Local Authority
Broward County Planning
Local Note
40-year recertification program (separate from SB 4-D)
Have a site in Broward?
Tell us what you’re trying to build, and we’ll walk you through the Live Local opportunity and its legal risk.
Broward County is Florida’s second most populous county
And one of its most fully built out, which means the work here is rarely raw ground. It is redevelopment, conversion, infill, and density added to land that already has a use. That reality, combined with the two-tier way Broward governs land, is exactly why entitlement and permitting strategy matters more here than in markets where you file with one office and wait.
How Broward Actually Governs Development
Most markets on this site run one code and one department. Broward runs a layered system,
and knowing which layer controls which decision is half the battle.
In-Demand Entitlements & Permitting in Broward
The Hollywood Question
What it does not do is switch off the Live Local Act in Broward. Qualifying projects across the county continue to file and receive administrative approval. What it does mean is that a coastal Hollywood site leaning hard on the height comparator carries more uncertainty today than an inland conversion in a city that is processing Live Local applications routinely.
JDJ’s job is to tell you which side of that line your specific site falls on, before you buy or design around it. We do not oversell the opportunity, and we do not let one headline scare you off a clean project.
What JDJ Handles in Broward
What Shapes a Project Here
Broward Terms, Decoded
Questions We Hear Most in Broward
Usually both, in sequence. Your zoning, site plan, and local building permit start with the municipality. County-level concurrency, environmental review, impact fees, and platting run through Broward County. The correct sequence is city first, then the associated county permit through ePermits OneStop. We manage the handoff so nothing stalls.
Yes. Qualifying projects continue to receive administrative approval across the county. A single Hollywood case on a narrow height question is on appeal and does not suspend the Act. We tell you whether your specific site carries any of that uncertainty before you commit.
Broadly: a commercial, industrial, or mixed-use zoned site, at least 40 percent of units affordable at or below 120 percent of Area Median Income held for 30 years, and multifamily or qualifying mixed-use. The 2026 amendments (HB 1389) also reach certain public and religious-institution land. We run the qualification and quantify the density, height, FAR, and parking benefit.
It depends on the city, whether county concurrency and environmental review apply, and whether the project is Live Local (administrative) or conventional (board-level). The real driver is the slowest layer, which is why we build the county track into the schedule from day one.
A structural building safety inspection for older buildings that runs alongside the statewide SB 4-D milestone inspection law. It is structural engineering, outside our scope, but a due-diligence item we flag on aging-building acquisitions.
All 31 Broward municipalities and the unincorporated Broward Municipal Services District, including Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Miramar, and Deerfield Beach.