BY LESLIE LAKE & JOE HENDRICKS
BRADENTON BEACH – The second reading of the city’s condominium-related milestone inspection ordinance has been adopted with an added clarification that effectively excludes all condominium and cooperatively-owned buildings in Bradenton Beach from the state’s milestone inspection requirements.
When presented to the city commission for first reading on March 5, City Ordinance 25-566 did not reference “habitable stories” and it included the following language: “A condominium association and a cooperative association must have a milestone inspection performed for each building that is three stories or more in height by Dec. 31 of the year in which the building reaches 30 years of age, or 25 years if the building is located within three miles of the coastline, and every 10 years thereafter.”
The state’s milestone condominium inspection and reporting laws were first enacted in 2024 and then amended in 2025. The city ordinance presented on March 5 included language based on the 2024 version of the state law that referenced buildings three stories or more in height and did not reference habitable stories. This created some confusion as to whether the city ordinance pertained to condo and co-op buildings with two habitable stories located above a ground-level parking area.
The state law was amended in 2025 and the milestone inspection and reporting requirements currently set forth in Florida Statute 553.889 apply to “a building that is three habitable stories or more in height as determined by the Florida Building Code.”
The Florida Building Code does not consider a ground-level parking area to be a habitable story.
The language contained in the revised city ordinance presented on March 19 is based on the current version of the state law. It now includes the word “habitable” and references milestone inspections performed for “each building that is three habitable stories or more in height.”
During the March 19 meeting, City Attorney Erica Augello said the adoption of House Bill 913 in 2025 clarified that the state’s milestone inspection laws that now pertain to condo and co-op buildings with three or more habitable stories.
Regarding the revised city ordinance, Augello said, “The only difference between the first reading and this reading is to clarify it, adding the word ‘habitable.’”
NO LOCAL IMPACT
Bradenton Beach’s city charter and land use regulations do not allow building heights that exceed the equivalent of three stories.
According to Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby, there aren’t any condo buildings in Bradenton Beach with three or more habitable floors, so the state-mandated inspection and reporting requirements referenced in the city ordinance don’t apply to any condo or co-op building in the city.
During the March 19 meeting, Building Official Rob Perry confirmed that condo buildings in Bradenton Beach are not impacted by the state’s milestone inspection program.
“The ordinance and the statute clarified the language and we won’t require any reporting in the future. The clarification was habitable stories and it was the confusion of the parking garage being a story,” Perry said.
The state law also requires each municipality’s building and planning department to provide the local enforcement of the state’s milestone inspection and reporting laws. Establishing those local enforcement responsibilities was the primary purpose of the city ordinance.
The Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis adopted the milestone inspection and reporting laws in 2024 in response to the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Sunrise, Florida, in 2021 that killed 98 people.
