Central Beach Master Plan
On May 17, 2022, the City Commission adopted updated regulations for the City’s Central Beach zoning districts to promote sustainable redevelopment throughout our Central Beach. The requirements are easier to understand and are both qualitative and quantitate to promote the most appropriate design solutions based on the context of each site.
The adopted regulations include design standards to support an active pedestrian environment, promoting active uses along building frontages, including lobbies, residential units, retail, and restaurant space, as well as open space provisions, and more prescriptive design criteria, setback requirements, and streetscape design standards.
The adopted regulations can be found on this link:
Central Beach Code Updates – May 17, 2022
Past Efforts
A significant amount of private development and public investment has occurred on Fort Lauderdale’s barrier island over the past 30 years, creating one of South Florida’s most notable destinations. Most of this growth was based on planning studies conducted in the 1980’s. The Central Beach Master Plan effort initiated in 2008, with the assistance of the consulting firm Sasaki and Associates, brought the community together to analyze past successes and failures and set the course for future development patterns and public improvements in the beach area. Following a series of public input meetings, various public realm improvement opportunities were identified and design principles for guiding private development were established with the assistance of the consulting firm Sasaki and Associates. In 2011, the City Commission authorized more than $70 million worth of public improvement projects for the Central Beach CRA as originally outlined in the Master Plan. This work has helped to move toward the vision of a dynamic, mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly urban beach destination. The emphasis moving forward is to improve the remaining portions of the Central Beach.
The draft 2009 Central Beach Master Plan, also known as the “Sasaki Plan,” can be found at this link: