Tallahassee, FL Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

Tallahassee Land Development Code § 10-241(2), 'Minimum development standards,' sets the maximum percent of impervious surface area allowed in the Residential Preservation-1 and Residential Preservation-2 zoning districts, the city's most restrictive single-family zones (RP-1 allows up to 3.6 dwelling units per acre; RP-2 up to six). The RP-1 table caps single-family residential lots and clustered single-family development at 40 percent impervious coverage, restricts active-recreation parcels to only 10 percent coverage, and allows up to 40 percent on community-service, school, or recreation-combination parcels. The RP-2 table applies the same 40 percent ceiling across all four listed development types: nonclustered single-family and two-unit townhouse units, clustered single-family units, nonclustered duplex units, and community-service/school/recreation parcels. City growth management staff verify the impervious-surface figure during Type A, B, C, or D site plan review.

Outside RP-1/RP-2, the cap moves with the zoning transect: LDC § 10-284.1(a)(4) holds lot coverage in Transects T3, T4, T5, and the Downtown Overlay to the figures printed in Section 10-285 Tables 10A through 10D, 'unless fee in-lieu provisions of Section 10-281(d), On-Site Green Space and Fee In-Lieu, are utilized,' letting a developer buy down the requirement instead of shrinking the building footprint. A narrower bonus applies inside historic preservation districts: LDC § 10-321(a) lets a contributing property add 30 percent more lot coverage than its base district allows, provided the addition sits to the rear of the existing historic structure and the Architectural Review Board approves it.