Outdoor kitchens in Broward County

Broward County was formed in 1915 from portions of Dade and Palm Beach counties and named for former Florida governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. Broward County counted 1,944,375 residents in the 2020 Census and an estimated 2,013,317 in July 2025, on 1,202.73 square miles of land. About two-thirds of Broward County is set aside as water conservation areas and remains part of the Everglades. Apart from the historic coastal ridge along Dixie Highway and U.S. 1, most of the area was once Everglades wetland, drained by canals by the late 1920s.

Broward County has 31 municipalities, and building permits are issued by the city in which a property lies. The County's Building Code Division regulates construction only in unincorporated Broward County, the Broward Municipal Services District, and in cities that contract with it. Broward's administrative chapter of the Florida Building Code applies countywide in both incorporated and unincorporated areas and is maintained by the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals (BORA). BORA considers code amendments, hears appeals of building and fire officials' decisions, issues formal interpretations, and in 2025 introduced a countywide Uniform Building Permit Application.

We check which rules apply to your address at the start of every project and prepare the documents the licensed contractor needs for the permits. Under the Florida Building Code, a permit from the building official is needed before a structure is built or altered and before electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing systems are installed or altered.

The Florida Building Code defines the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone as Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Homes and their structures there must also meet the code's dedicated HVHZ provisions. In Broward County, the Florida Building Code sets the design wind speed (3-second gust) at 170 mph for Risk Category II buildings and structures, which covers most homes, and treats every site as at least Exposure Category C. Overturning and uplift stability must be provided for any structure or part of it. In the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, structural aluminum follows its own section of the Florida Building Code. All buildings and structures must be designed to resist uplift, expansion anchors must sit at least 3 inches from the edge of a slab or footing, bolts and other fasteners must be aluminum, stainless steel or galvanized steel, and the building official may require design by a Florida-registered engineer. How the kitchen is anchored on your lot, we plan with licensed partners.

Broward County comprises over 266 miles of fresh and estuarine waterways, and the County counts more than 300 miles of navigable waterways, which is why the Greater Fort Lauderdale area is known as the "Venice of America." Mangrove swamps line the Intracoastal Waterway and its adjoining canals. New FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps took effect in Broward County on July 31, 2024, replacing the maps of August 18, 2014. Their base flood elevations must be used for all new construction and substantial improvements, and Zone VE marks coastal areas with additional hazards from storm waves. Broward County requires new or substantially rebuilt seawalls, seawall caps and similar tidal flood barriers to reach a minimum elevation of 5 feet NAVD88; applications filed before January 1, 2035 may build to 4 feet if designed to be raised to 5 feet by 2050. Tidally influenced cities had to adopt consistent standards, and work on docks and seawalls also needs a County aquatic resources license.

Broward County has 24 miles of beaches along the Atlantic, with coral reefs of the Florida Reef Tract offshore. Since 1981 a state coastal construction control line has run along the entire Broward coast, and building or excavating seaward of it requires a permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Sea turtle nesting season in Broward County runs from March 1 to October 31, with an average of about 2,000 nests a year. Since a 1997 County plan, every coastal city has had to enforce a lighting ordinance requiring beachfront lights to be turned off during nesting season, and the County recommends low, shielded, long-wavelength fixtures. In gardens near the beach, we plan the kitchen lighting with these rules in mind. Broward County's Tree Preservation and Abuse Ordinance has countywide authority, but it is not enforced in cities with equally stringent rules of their own. Where it applies, a license is required to remove or relocate a tree, except nuisance trees, and trees must be protected with visible barriers during construction.

Hurricane Wilma crossed South Florida on October 24, 2005, and its 55- to 65-mile-wide eye covered most of Broward County. The National Weather Service recorded a peak gust of 99 mph at Fort Lauderdale and reported the heaviest structural damage in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. A FREILUFT kitchen is built to stay outside year-round; before a storm, secure everything loose. Near the coast, salt air reaches the garden: FREILUFT cabinets use 5/16 in (8 mm) marine-grade aluminum, finished with Off-Shore powder coating with a chromate-free, nano-ceramic pre-treatment. Clean aluminum and the coating with mild soapy water, clean natural stone without acids, and lubricate the hinges twice a year.