§ 704. Conflict of county ordinances with municipal ordinances; preemption.

A.

Except as provided in this section, no county ordinance shall be effective within a municipality if the municipality maintains an ordinance covering the same subject matter, activity or conduct as the county ordinance.

B.

County ordinances shall be effective within municipalities and shall prevail over municipal ordinances when:

1.

The county sets minimum standards for (a) regulating adult entertainment, and (b) protecting the environment by prohibiting or regulating air or water pollution, and (c) prohibiting or regulating simulated gambling or gambling, but only to the extent that such minimum standards are stricter than the applicable municipal standards.

2.

The county ordinances provide that the county's and any municipality's rezonings or comprehensive-plan amendments (or both) that increase residential density are effective only upon approval by the governing boards of all significantly affected local governments when:

(a)

The attendance zone for any public school to be affected by the increase in residential density lies only partly inside a municipality; and

(b)

The school district cannot certify to the governing boards of all significantly affected local governments that the school, the attendance zone for which straddles a municipal boundary, can accommodate the additional students that will result from the increase in residential density.

The ordinance shall provide that the above-described rezonings and comprehensive-plan amendments take effect only upon approval of each significantly affected local government, whether the county or any municipality therein. The ordinance may include exceptions for de minimis impacts to the affected school(s) and such terms, requirements, limitations, exceptions, and other provisions that may be necessary or useful to protect property rights, comply with applicable law, and carry out the intent and purposes of this subsection.

Should a court of competent jurisdiction hold, after all appeals, that the ordinance does not afford the municipalities the same opportunity as the county to approve or deny the aforementioned comprehensive-plan amendments and rezonings when they are significantly affected local governments, the ordinance shall terminate and be of no further force and effect.

C.

The intent of this section is that no person within a municipality shall be governed simultaneously by two sets of ordinances covering the same subject matter, activity or conduct, except in matters of minimum adult-entertainment standards, or pollution regulatory standards, or simulated gambling or gambling prohibitions or standards, or rezoning or comprehensive-plan amendments that affect public schools with attendance zones that straddle any municipal boundary. In absence of an ordinance within a municipality on a subject, the county ordinance on that subject shall govern.

(Amended November 1988; November 1996; November 2004; Ord. No. 2012-13 , § 2, 6-19-12; amended November 2012 )

State law reference

County charter to provide for resolution of conflict between county and municipal ordinances, Fla. Const. art. VIII, § 1(g).