Sumter County, FL Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Section 13-906, 'Historic preservation,' inside the Land Development Code's resource-protection article, requires certain projects to clear their site with the state historic-preservation agency before Sumter County approves them. The trigger is specific: any development of more than twenty dwelling units, more than fifteen thousand square feet of non-residential space, or a mining use, plus separately, any proposal to demolish a building fifty years old or older, must first obtain a letter of clearance from the Florida Division of Historical Resources to determine the presence of known historical and/or archaeological resources.

That letter has to establish whether the property sits on or near a recorded site before Development Services will move the project forward. If the state's review turns up a known historical or archaeological resource, subsection (a) requires the developer to provide for appropriate mitigation or avoidance of impacts rather than simply proceeding as designed. Subsection (b) covers the opposite situation, a resource nobody knew about that turns up mid-project during clearing, grading or construction, in which case appropriate measures should be taken to protect and document whatever was found rather than continuing to disturb it.

The county administrator or a designee retains discretion under subsection (c) to waive the clearance-letter requirement altogether for a given project, so not every qualifying development is guaranteed to need the state review; the waiver decision is made administratively rather than by a fixed exemption written into the code itself.