STUART, Fla. — Many residents in Stuart tell WPTV that they have concerns over a bill currently heading to the House floor.
Senate Bill 102, also known as the "Live Local Act," contains a clause that, if passed, seems to suggest it would remove the local government's authority to limit how high and how large future buildings can be built.
"We're totally against it," Hobe Sound resident Richard Macauley said.
"I wouldn't like to see towers built in our quaint little seaside village, which would quickly become the next Broward County," added Stuart resident Will Laughlin.
Currently, Martin County has acomprehensive plan, established in 1984, that limits how high any building can be built.
"The county has a four-story height limit that spans countywide," Martin County Administrator Don Donaldson said. "No matter where [the bill] applies, if it allows a height limits exceeding four stories, it's preempting our rules and is something we wouldn't support."
State Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, who serves Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties, said that won't be a concern.
"It will not lead to high rises coming to Martin County," Harrell said. "It's four stories in Martin County, period."
Harrell said the bill only applies to very low, low, moderate income and workforce housing units. She said it does not apply to any and all future buildings.
Even then, Harrell said the bill means commercially zoned and mixed-use areas in the county, for example, ones zoned for only single-level houses, would have to allow for four-story affordable housing units if a site were planned for that area.
"Whatever the highest height is in the county and whatever the highest height is in the city," Harrell said, adding it varies depending on the local government's jurisdiction.
Harrell said the bill is meant to help alleviate the housing issue.
"We have a thousand people a day moving into Florida, and we want to make sure that our citizens have a place to live," Harrell said.
Still, residents like Macauley and Laughlin said they aren't sure, afraid both of growth in height and in population.
"I hope there's some significant pushback," Laughlin said, adding that he hopes the county gets to the root of the problem, which he said he believes is a wage and housing issue.
"It exacerbates our concerns," Macauley said. "You go down the street and you see buildings going up everywhere, and every apartment's going to have at least two more cars. It's going to be a madhouse here."
The bill has now passed the committee and heads to the House floor.
