Alachua County voted Tuesday to amend its Unified Land Development Code in four different ways, allowing residential poultry, expanding inclusionary zoning and aligning with new state laws.  

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) also approved a preliminary development plan for Eastwood Preserve. The plan shows the layout of the 149-home development near Newnans Lake. 

For poultry, the revised county code will now allow up to 10 hens or ducks regardless of zoning for parcels five acres or less located within its urban cluster. 

Outside the urban cluster, parcels can have up to 10 of any poultry on less than an acre. For parcels of an acre to five acres, property owners can have 15 poultry per acre for agriculture, agricultural rural business, residential estate, single-family estate residential and single-family low-density zoning. 

Outside of the urban cluster, landowners can raise any poultry by right. For less than an acre, 10 poultry are allowed. For anything over an acre, 15 poultry are allowed per acre. 

Roosters and drakes (male ducks) are prohibited within residential zoning inside the urban cluster.  

Alachua County passed its inclusionary comprehensive plan update earlier this year. The amendment to the land development code now allows implementation. The change will let traditional neighborhood developments and transit-oriented developments trade commercial requirements for affordable housing at the 60% or 80% area median income levels.  

Commissioner Anna Prizzia questioned how long new affordable housing would be required to stay affordable, and staff said it had looked at a 30-year timeframe. Prizzia said if developers get permanent density bonuses and other incentives for building the affordable housing, then the housing should also remain in perpetuity. 

Her motion passed the changes and asked staff to consider what incentives it gave developers and how it matched timeframes.  

New state laws passed in 2025 require Alachua County to change two parts of its development code.  

First, the state passed standards for farmworker housing that override Alachua County’s policy established a few years ago. The BOCC voted to remove its former policy. 

“I’m really sad that we have to do this for the farmworker housing, and I really appreciate all the work that our staff did to build something that was meaningful prior to this preemption,” Prizzia said.  

Chair Ken Cornell said the county would keep it in a file in case anything changed at the state level.  

Second, the state passed a law that requires counties to place “Certified Recovery Residence” as a limited use within the agricultural, single-family residential, multi-family residential, residential/professional, traditional neighborhood development and transit-oriented development zoning. 

The zoning allows for facilities that help individuals recover from substance abuse.