Orlando homeowners who’ve ever dreamed of adding a granny flat, cottage, or garage apartment to their backyard may have a new reason to start planning: the city of Orlando is now offering thousands of dollars in incentives to help pay for it.
City planning director Jason Burton says Orlando’s housing crunch has been decades in the making. After World War II, many cities, including Orlando, restricted or outright banned accessory dwelling units, often called ADUs. That decision, Burton says, erased a key option for “gentle” growth: small second homes on existing lots that can add housing without changing the look and feel of a neighborhood.
“So we were kind of missing all that incremental development, that latent demand for accessory dwelling units,” said Burton.
The Orlando City Council originally passed changes in 2018 to the Land Development Code encouraging the construction of ADUs, as one way to alleviate the housing shortage in Orlando. Since then, many new ADUs have been built, especially in the historic districts where permitting is actually easier, since garage apartments were often part of the original neighborhoods.
Today, ADUs are making a comeback and Burton says they can help a wide range of people. They can work for seniors who want to downsize while staying close to family, adult children who move back home, single renters, or relatives who need a nearby place to live.
To encourage more of them, the City of Orlando is rolling out a $1.5 million incentive program aimed at homeowners willing to build an ADU on their property. Under the program, homeowners can be reimbursed $10,000 for construction costs, plus receive rebates for building permits and impact fees, benefits that can total roughly another $4,000.
But there is a requirement: for 12 of the first 24 months, the ADU has to be rented to someone who earns at or below 120% of the area median income. The lease requirement may be waived if the ADU resident is aged 62 or older
Burton says that threshold is higher than many people might expect: about $89,000 a year for a single person, meaning a lot of renters would qualify. To meet the program rules, homeowners must provide a lease showing the unit is rented for at least 12 months within the first 24 months after the ADU is built.
The city is also trying to make the process easier by working with an architect to develop pre-approved building plans that would be available to homeowners at no cost, potentially speeding up approvals and lowering design costs.
For homeowners who don’t want a traditional build, the city says another option is a modular unit purchased from an approved manufacturer and installed on a foundation. One example is Movable Roots, based in Melbourne, which offers several ADU models designed for that purpose.
What won’t qualify: a tiny home or RV on wheels.
Burton says interested applicants should review the site checklist to help determine their property’s eligibility and readiness to construct an ADU
Burton says ADUs aren’t a new idea at all.
“If you think about it, they’re Americana as apple pie because every good American sitcom has always involved in ADU,” said Burton. “In Happy Days, where Fonzie lived, that was an ADU... or that 70s show or Family Ties, they all involved an ADU, so it’s part of our culture to have them.”