Hollywood Offers Developers a Way to Buy Past Density Limits

The Hollywood City Commission took up two linked land-use ordinances on September 16 that would let hotel owners on Hollywood Beach buy extra rooms and extra height, in exchange for public plaza space and payments toward a new resiliency fund. The comprehensive-plan piece creating the Tourism Incentive Density Entitlement (TIDE) program had its second and final reading that night. The zoning ordinance spelling out the actual bonus math, the new Hollywood Beach Overlay District, had its first reading the same meeting.

Why it matters

For a hotel or condo-hotel owner on the beach, TIDE turns density into something purchasable rather than fixed. Existing rules cap hotel rooms at 50 to 150 per acre depending on location, with an older “room pool” that can push some parcels to 300 per acre. TIDE lets the commission go further, and the Overlay District sets the price: a sliding scale of public open space tied to how many extra rooms an owner wants. Participation stays voluntary. An owner who skips it can still build under current as-of-right zoning. But every hotel redevelopment pitch on the beach from here forward gets measured against what TIDE and the Overlay bonus tiers now offer that as-of-right zoning does not.

The numbers

Combined base density and TIDE allocation cannot exceed 350 hotel rooms per acre citywide, per Exhibit B of the Overlay ordinance. The price scales in five tiers: up to 50 additional rooms per acre requires public open space equal to 5 percent of a site’s gross area, 51 to 100 rooms costs 7.5 percent, 101 to 150 costs 10 percent, 151 to 200 costs 12.5 percent, and anything above 200 costs 15 percent. Height runs on a separate table. The Hollywood Beach Resort precinct’s Unified Master Plan pathway tops out at 340 feet, but the Planning and Development Board recommended the commission cap that pathway at 30 stories with no further bonuses. Landmark-eligible sites elsewhere on the beach can add up to 50 feet above their mapped maximum.

What’s next

The TIDE comprehensive-plan amendment still needs the state land planning agency’s compliance notice before it takes effect, 31 days later unless challenged. The Overlay District ordinance, PO-2026-026, returns for a second reading and final vote, and by its own text cannot take effect until the TIDE amendment and two related comp-plan changes are in place and Broward County’s Planning Council recertifies the plan. The whole bonus framework carries a five-year sunset unless the commission renews it. For now, developers eyeing Hollywood Beach sites have a price list to plan against, not yet a green light. More on the county’s approvals activity is on The American Developer’s South Florida hub.