Broward Lifts Housing Location Limit in Uptown Fort Lauderdale

A Broward County land use text amendment headed to a Sept. 10 adoption vote does not add a single unit to Fort Lauderdale’s Uptown Activity Center. It erases the boundary line that has confined all of the district’s approved housing to two carved-out slices of the 361.7-acre area since the Activity Center was created in February 2025, and opens the entire tract to residential development instead.

Why it matters

Uptown is Broward’s designated conversion zone, an aging employment and industrial belt straddling I-95 and Cypress Creek Road that planners want rebuilt as mixed-use, anchored by the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station, I-95 and Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. The current rule restricts new housing to parcels east of Powerline Road and north of Cypress Creek Road, or east of Andrews Avenue and south of Cypress Creek Road, leaving large stretches of the district, including land near the airport, off limits to residential product no matter how a parcel is otherwise entitled. PCT 26-9, sponsored by the county commission rather than a private applicant, deletes that carve-out. Every parcel in the Activity Center becomes residential-eligible on the same terms, a direct repricing signal for anyone holding or shopping land in the district. The original restriction traces to airport noise-compatibility concerns from the 2025 approval. Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport’s director wrote county planners in March that the airport now “is in support of this land use plan amendment,” conditioned on every residential permit applicant recording an avigation easement and completing a noise-abatement acoustic study.

The numbers

The Activity Center’s approved capacity does not change: 4,239 dwelling units, 4,374,186 square feet of office, 1,449,494 square feet of commercial space, 2,262,922 square feet of industrial space and 1,600 hotel rooms across the 361.7 acres. An additional 807 flexibility units already assigned to approved projects sit outside that base count. At least 635 of the 4,239 units, 15 percent, must be affordable at up to 120 percent of area median income for a minimum of 30 years, or satisfied with an in-lieu payment starting at $10,300 per unit and rising 3 percent annually, split between the county and the city.

What’s next

The Planning Council recommended approval unanimously, 14-0, on April 23, the county commission’s transmittal hearing cleared it June 9, and state review agencies raised no objections as of July 15. The county commission takes up final adoption Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. If adopted, the change takes effect 31 days after the Florida Department of Commerce certifies the amendment package complete, absent a legal challenge. Developers and brokers working the South Florida market should watch which previously excluded Uptown parcels list or trade first once the restriction clears.