West Palm Beach, FL Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Sec. 94-72(a)(4) sets a flat 30-foot maximum building height for the SF3, SF5 and SF7 single-family districts, and sections 94-73(b)(3) and 94-74(a)(6) apply the same 30-foot cap to the SF11 small-lot district and the SF14 high-density single-family district. Multifamily zoning uses a different formula: Sec. 94-76 (MF20) and Sec. 94-77 (MF32) both cap building height at "the greater of 40 feet or two feet in height for each one foot in setback from side and rear lot lines," so a taller building is allowed only if it is pulled back further from its side and rear property lines. MF14 (Sec. 94-75(a)(3)) holds to the flat 30-foot limit like the single-family districts.

Sec. 94-306 carves out exemptions from every district's height cap: heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, church steeples, bell towers, flagpoles, chimneys, parapets, stair enclosures, tanks, elevator hoistways, and television or radio antennas may exceed the applicable district height limit by ten percent. Even with that exemption, no structure, including exempt equipment, may exceed height limits set by the Federal Aviation Administration within a designated flight approach pattern, as filed with the city's planning and zoning administrator, per Sec. 94-306(b). Height is not the only ceiling on a structure's bulk: Sec. 94-80(b)(3) separately limits wall height at the side setback in the city's historic contextual districts to as little as 13 feet, rising one foot for each additional foot of side setback provided beyond the minimum.