TO: Indian River County Board of County Commissioners
THROUGH: John A. Titkanich, Jr., County Administrator
FROM: Ryan Sweeney, Assistant Planning & Development Services Director
DATE: January 26, 2026
SUBJECT: Consideration of Staff-Initiated Land Development Regulation (LDR)
Amendments to Create a Reasonable Accommodation Ordinance Including
Certified Recovery Residences [Legislative]
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BACKGROUND
Senate Bill 954 was adopted in 2025 requiring counties to adopt ordinances establishing procedures for reasonable accommodation of any local land use regulation that prohibits certified recovery residences. The County does not currently have reasonable accommodation procedures established within the adopted land development regulations (LDRs). Therefore, the proposed LDR amendments will create reasonable accommodation procedures, and then also confirm that certified recovery residences are eligible to request reasonable accommodation via the newly created procedures.
ANALYSIS
In summary, the first section of the proposed LDR amendments establishes consistency with the Federal Fair Housing Amendments Act (42 U.S.C. 3601, et. seq.) ("FHAA") and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. Section 12131, et. seq.) ("ADA"). Section 2 outlines that requests for reasonable accommodation shall be submitted to the Planning and Development Services (PDS) Department and identifies timeframes for review of the request. Section 3 discusses medical information and that the County should make efforts to treat said medical information as confidential.
Section 4 of the proposed LDR amendments establishes that the PDS Director, or his/her designee, shall have the authority to consider and act on requests for reasonable accommodation, and outlines the process for approval, partial approval, or denial of each request. Section 5 confirms that the applicant must demonstrate a handi...
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