Lake County, FL Accessory Structures: ADU Owner Occupancy (2026)

03(A) states the purpose of allowing accessory dwelling units: providing less expensive housing to accommodate growth, housing for relatives, and added security. 03(B), an ADU is a self-contained dwelling with its own entrance, cooking accommodations and complete bathing facilities that shares a lot with a single-family home, and the lot must be a legally created lot of record. 03(B)(2) requires the lot to be occupied by the owner of the premises, who may live in either the principal dwelling or the ADU. Before a building permit issues for a new ADU, or before an existing structure is used as one, the owner must execute, and the County Manager or designee must record, a public-records document at the owner's expense that keeps the principal dwelling and the ADU in the same ownership and limits occupancy of either unit to the property owner; proof of that recording is required before the ADU's occupancy permit is issued.

03(B)(5), require architectural compatibility on lots under an acre, require a shared driveway where access comes from the same right-of-way, make ADUs subject to impact fees absent a Chapter 22 exemption, and require mobile or modular ADUs to sit on a permanent foundation with skirting and no exposed transport hardware.