Tallahassee, FL Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Density Bonus Law (2026)

7 of the Tallahassee Land Development Code makes bonus density or intensity available in every zoning district inside the Multi-Modal Transportation District (MMTD) except the Residential Preservation, R-1 Single-Family Detached Residential, R-2 Single-Family Detached Residential, University Village, and All Saints Neighborhood districts. To collect a bonus, a development plan must clearly address the qualifying enhancement, and the enhancement must be built before the certificate of occupancy is issued for the principal use; the calculation runs off the total land area of the site. Each qualifying enhancement is worth a five percent increase in density or intensity, stacking to a ceiling of 35 percent in an Urban Planned Unit Development (U-PUD) or 25 percent in any other eligible MMTD district.

The code lists more than twenty specific enhancements a developer can choose from, including a mixture of uses, creative parking alternatives, public art visible from the right-of-way, continuous sidewalk coverings, upper-floor balconies and bay windows, pedestrian plazas, weather-protected transit stops built to StarMetro's design standard, LEED or Florida Green Building Coalition certification, sheltered bicycle parking with employee showers and lockers, shared driveways, recessed garages, service alleys, and dedicated community garden space of at least one-eighth acre. Separately, subsection (b) grants any lot carrying an accessory dwelling unit an automatic 25 percent gross density bonus applied to the underlying zoning district's standards, as long as the lot never carries more than two dwelling units total.

The section was adopted by Ordinance No. 13-O-03 on August 28, 2013, and has been amended as recently as Ordinance No. 25-O-26 on November 19, 2025.