Miami 21 is the zoning code of the City of Miami, in force since 2009. It is a form-based code: instead of sorting land by use alone, it gives every lot a Transect Zone and then regulates the building's form, its height, its setbacks, its frontage and how it meets the street. Use still matters, but form is the organizing idea. It applies only inside city limits.
- Form-based means the code asks where the building meets the street before it asks what happens inside. Use-based zoning answers a different question.
- Uses, and whether each needs a Warrant or an Exception, sit in Article 4, Table 3. Everyone quotes the height; few read the table.
- It is amended continuously. An envelope answer is only good against the version adopted the day it was given, and we say which day that was.
- Outside city limits it does not apply. Unincorporated Miami-Dade, Hialeah and every other municipality run codes of their own.
We do not reproduce the code here. It is published, searchable, and it is the only version that governs: The City of Miami zoning code, in full
Related terms
All termsTransect Zone
A Transect Zone is the category Miami 21 assigns to every lot, and it is the input to almost everything else.
DevelopmentZoning
Zoning is the local rule that says what may be built on a piece of land and how it may be used.
DevelopmentDevelopment Envelope
The development envelope is the three-dimensional shape a parcel's rules allow: the volume left after height limits, setbacks, density caps, parking requirements, and lot coverage have each taken their bite.
Terms arrive with the writing.
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