Sarasota, FL Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

The affordability affidavit sits inside the same package of accessory dwelling unit standards that created Sarasota's owner-occupancy affidavit, and it applies only in the five detached single-family zones: RSF-E, RSF-1, RSF-2, RSF-3 and RSF-4, per the zone list at the top of Section VII-602(cc)(2.1). The affidavit is conditional, not universal: it is required only 'if the accessory dwelling unit is rented,' so an owner who keeps the ADU as a guest suite, home office, or family member's residence and never rents it does not have to file the affordable-rate commitment.

Once the unit is rented, the affidavit fixes the ceiling at a household income at or below 120 percent of area median income (AMI), a standard set at the time the building permit for the ADU is issued rather than reset every lease term. The rental affidavit is separate from, and layered on top of, the owner-occupancy affidavit in (cc)(2.1)b-c: even where the ADU is the rented unit, one of the two units on the lot, principal house or ADU, must still carry the owner's homestead exemption.

The ADU itself is capped at 650 square feet of floor area and, in the RSF zones, may not be built within the Coastal Islands Overlay District or as part of a cottage court housing development under (cc)(2)b-c, so a prospective landlord in those areas cannot use this ADU pathway to create a rental unit at all.