Titusville Affordable Housing Advisory Committee: 2027 Housing Incentive Plan Review on November 2

The Titusville Affordable Housing Advisory Committee will meet on Monday, November 2, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. to review the draft 2027 Housing Incentive Plan for adoption. The plan is part of the city's work under the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program. The draft keeps most of the city's current affordable housing incentives as they are. It asks City Council to have staff research three changes. The committee's public hearing on the plan is set for Monday, November 9, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. The review is item V.A under New Business on the committee's agenda.

What the Draft 2027 Housing Incentive Plan Says

The draft is titled the 2027 Housing Incentive Plan Review and Recommendation Report. It says the city adopted Ordinance No. 14-2008 on May 13, 2008. That ordinance added Article IV, Sections 10-65 through 10-75, to the city code for the SHIP Program. It created a Local Housing Assistance Trust Fund and a Local Housing Assistance Program. It also created the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and provided for an Affordable Housing Incentive Plan.

The report says the committee's purpose is to review the city's policies, procedures, ordinances, land development regulations and comprehensive plan. It then develops a plan with specific incentives and actions to encourage or help the development of affordable housing. The plan is meant to do this while protecting the ability of property to appreciate in value.

The report says the committee held its first meeting on July 13, 2026. It reviewed the city's 2026 Housing Incentive Plan, the city code, the Land Development Regulations and the Comprehensive Plan. It also looked at the city's SHIP Local Housing Assistance Plan for 2026 to 2030 and current recommendations on the Live Local Act. The report states that the committee's overall view was that the city's current codes and rules work well with the prior year's plan.

The draft lists thirteen incentives, labeled A through M. For ten of them, the committee recommends keeping the incentive as is. These include expedited permitting, the reservation of infrastructure capacity, accessory dwelling units, street requirements and the city's community land trust. The report says the committee found that the expedited permitting incentive is working as intended.

For impact fees and for inclusionary zoning, the committee agreed to keep the incentives as is. The report says this is pending the results of an Affordable Housing Study with Inclusionary Zoning and Linkage Fee. The October 12, 2026 minutes say the city has not yet had that study done.

The draft asks City Council to instruct staff to research three changes for affordable housing projects.

• An increase to the maximum allowable density for the future land use designation.

• A reduction of parking, setback and landscape buffer requirements, to increase the number of units that can be built.

• A separate standard for flexible lot configurations.

The public hearing notice in the packet lists no new proposed incentives. Each recommendation in the draft shows City Council action as pending.

The Florida Law Behind the Review

Section 420.9072, Florida Statutes, creates the SHIP Program. It provides state funds to counties and eligible municipalities to help create local housing partnerships and expand and preserve affordable housing. Section 420.9076 sets out the duties of each local Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.

Under section 420.9076(4), the committee must review the local government's rules and plans each year. It must recommend specific actions to encourage or help affordable housing. At a minimum, it must report each year on eleven areas. These include faster permit approval for affordable housing, fee waivers, flexible density, parking and setback reductions, flexible lot layouts, street requirements, and an inventory of public land suitable for affordable housing.

Section 420.9076(5) says the committee must approve its recommendations by a majority vote of its members at a public hearing. Notice of that hearing must be published in a newspaper of general paid circulation in the county. Under section 420.9076(6), the city's governing body must then amend its local housing assistance plan within 90 days after it receives the recommendations. The amendment must include the strategies that section 420.9071(18) requires at a minimum. Those are faster permit approval for affordable housing projects, an ongoing process to review rules that increase the cost of housing before they are adopted, and a schedule for putting the strategies in place.

What the Draft Says About Developers and Residents

The draft gives the committee's reasons for several of its recommendations. For density, the report says the committee wants more units to be built in smaller areas. For lot configurations, it says affordable housing projects should get special consideration for lot width and lot area requirements so more affordable units can be built.

For Incentive I, the report says the committee wants to avoid new requirements for residential construction that could raise the cost of building affordable housing. It says those costs could be passed on to residents. For Incentive K, the report says most affordable housing developments have received grant funding that requires them to be within a set distance of public transportation.

Attachment B lists nine city-owned vacant lots as suitable for affordable housing. The list includes 700 Wager Ave., 910 Dummitt Ave. and 431 Canaveral Ave. The lots range from 0.11 to 0.45 acres. The October 12 minutes say the committee discussed that no applications have been received for development under the Live Local Act due to the rules and regulations.

The Public Hearing and Next Steps

The public hearing notice says the committee will hold a hearing on the plan at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November 9, 2026. It will be held at the Harry T. Moore Social Service Center, 725 S. DeLeon Avenue, Titusville, FL 32780. The purpose is to receive comments on the plan before its adoption. Copies of the proposed plan are available at the Neighborhood Services Department in the same building. Anyone with a disability who needs special accommodations to take part in the hearing should contact the department at 321-567-3997 by 4:00 p.m. on November 5, 2026.

The draft report says it will be submitted to City Council for consideration at a special session on December 8, 2026. It says a resolution to adopt the plan will go before Council at a regular meeting in January 2027.

For the November 2 meeting, the agenda asks any physically handicapped person who wants to attend to submit a written request at least 48 hours before the meeting, under section 286.26, Florida Statutes. The agenda also includes an open forum for petitions and requests from the public present.

The notice states that all citizens are invited and encouraged to attend the public hearing and make oral or written comments on the incentives. The committee meets Monday, November 2, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. at the Harry T. Moore Social Service Center, 725 S. DeLeon Ave., Titusville.