Sanford, FL Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Schedule C, Area and Dimension Regulations, lists "Maximum Building Height" as 35 feet in the SR-1AA, SR-1A, SR-1, SR-2 and AG districts, and also 35 feet, subject to footnote (3), in the MR-1, MR-2 and MR-3 multi-family districts, compared with 50 feet in RMOI, RC-1, RI-1 and MI-2, and 100 feet in SC-3. Footnote (3) explains that building heights may be increased pursuant to Schedule E, Section 16.0, D.4, the multiple-family housing design guidelines. That section caps a multifamily building at two stories on any property adjacent to a single-family dwelling or single-family zoning district, but allows three stories for a building that sits interior to the development and at least 200 linear feet from adjacent properties.

It further allows building rooflines to exceed 35 feet, but only where the height above 35 feet serves a decorative purpose, such as dormers, pediments, chimneys or hipped or gabled roof forms, and includes no habitable space. Any request to exceed the district's base height in Schedule C therefore still tops out at the multi-family design guideline's two/three-story limit and the decorative-roofline exception; it does not authorize an additional habitable story. Height is measured, like all Schedule C dimensional standards, against the underlying zoning district shown on the city's Zoning District Map, and a proposed structure exceeding these limits requires either a variance under Article III or reclassification of the parcel to a district with a higher maximum.