RV park site plan in Polk County, Florida: a Central Florida model

A model project in unincorporated Polk County

This is a model project, not a built one: an 80 to 150 site RV park on 10 to 30 acres in unincorporated Polk County, used to show how the county's conditional use rules and the state rules above them shape a Central Florida site plan. No developer, parcel or approval is implied. The program is a transient and seasonal RV park with a bathhouse or clubhouse, an office, dump and potable water stations, internal roads and stormwater ponds.

Polk is the jurisdiction here because it rewrote its RV park conditional use criteria in 2024 and publishes a complete land development fee schedule ^{[1, 5]}. The county lies between the Tampa and Orlando markets. A park of this size needs three separate approvals: a county conditional use (or Planned Development) under Land Development Code (LDC) Section 303, an Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) from the water management district, and an annual Florida Department of Health (DOH) operating permit under F.S. Chapter 513 and F.A.C. Chapter 64E-15 ^{[6, 3]}. For the statewide regime see RV park site plans in Florida and the Florida site plan hub.

The definition matters for marketing and permitting alike. A project branded an "RV resort" is legally an RV park under 513.01(11), so it carries the full DOH permit burden and is exempt from Chapter 509 hotel regulation (513.012) ^[7]. Any park of five or more sites is therefore a state-permitted facility ^[7]. Under s. 513.014, a mobile home park with five or more RV sites must meet the RV park rules for those sites ^[10]. The RV resort site plan hub covers the resort program; in Florida law it is the same asset.

How Polk reviews the use

Polk runs a single-map system. Staff put it directly in the LDCT-2023-7 report: "In Polk County, there is not a separate zoning map. Planned Developments are optional conditional uses working within the framework of the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map." ^[8] The entitlement question is therefore what the parcel's Future Land Use district allows in LDC Table 2.1, not what the zoning is.

In the 2019 codified Chapter 2, the Table 2.1 row for "Recreational Vehicle Park" reads P in one standard district and C2 in one other ^[11]. Which districts those two columns are is not confirmed in the documents for this page, so the column check is the first diligence step on any parcel. Chapter 2 sorts conditional uses by review: a C2 use gets a Level 2 review, with a site plan reviewed by the Development Review Committee (DRC); a C3 use gets a Level 3 review, a DRC site plan review plus a public hearing before the Planning Commission; a C4 use gets a Level 4 review, with public hearings before both the Planning Commission and the BoCC ^[11]. Chapter 2 also names the Planned Development as the route to higher densities, pointing to Section 303 ^[11]. A Level 3 decision is appealed to the BoCC, which hears it de novo under LDC Section 921.C.3 ^[12].

Ord. 2024-032 (LDCT-2024-3) amended Section 303 "to modify conditional use criteria for Recreational Camping and RV Parks; and adding a definition for Primitive Camping to Chapter 10" ^{[1, 2]}. The Planning Commission approved it on April 3, 2024, and Legistar File 24-0490 records that action as "4/3/2024 Planning Commission Approved Pass" ^[1]. The ordinance's adoption date is not settled: the code publisher's ordinance list and the county's meeting video give dates that cannot both be right, so the date is taken from the signed ordinance before anyone relies on it. In the BoCC minutes a staff member said RV parks "are significantly more intense" than recreational camping ^[13].

The governing text is current: the LDC is Ordinance 00-09 as amended, and Supplement 12 is codified through Ord. 2026-024 (enacted March 21, 2026), with online content updated August 26, 2026 ^[14]. Section 303's post-2024 numeric RV standards (density, buffers, setbacks, road widths and minimum park size) are not reproduced in the documents for this page; they are read from the current code at the pre-application conference and drawn onto the plan from there.

Three county rules from the LDCT-2023-7 report reach an RV park directly. Sewer counts as "available" when a line is within 1/2 mile, within 3/4 mile when serving 10 or more ERUs, or within 1 mile when serving 20 or more ERUs, and Section 702 requires connection where it is available ^[8]. Public water is available with "an adequately sized distribution system within one mile of the property" ^[8]. A PD more than one mile from water and wastewater services "will not be eligible for consideration," so rural parcels lose the PD route ^[8]. The same amendment let unpaved areas dedicated to RV parking count as open space, a change to Section 750 ^[8]. A PD application carries a concept plan, an open space plan and an amenity plan (the change to Section 903.G), and its "External Design" element asks the applicant to show buffering, screening and transition to less intense neighbors ^[8].

Overlays add their own layer. Amendments affecting the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern (LDC Chapter 5) require state review ^[8]. Appendix E carries parcel-specific conditions: Ord. 2024-037 lists "Recreational Vehicle Parks" among prohibited uses on a CR 630 parcel near Frostproof ^{[15, 14]}. On the clock, Polk issues development permits and orders as a county under F.S. 125.022, the county counterpart of the municipal F.S. 166.033, and SB 1080 (2025, ch. 2025-177) rewrote the timeframes and refunds in both ^[16].

Approval path

Every approval the documents name, listed in the usual order; several run in parallel. Fees are from the Polk Land Development Fee Schedule (effective October 1, 2023, posted as the ADA version on 11/14/2025) unless noted ^[5]; timelines and seals the documents do not state are marked "Not stated".

A PD can stand in for the conditional use, but the documents for this page do not agree on which review level a PD takes, so the level is confirmed at pre-application. The fee schedule doubles fees for applications arising from an LDC violation and makes third-party review costs "the obligation of the applicant" ^[5].

An illustrative county total for 120 sites at Level 3, counting only the identified fee lines: $250 + $4,023 + $450 + $7,506.75 + $3,600 + $2,189 + $500 + $1,105 = $19,623.75 ^[5]. That illustrative total excludes the site plan review line, ERP, utility, impact and building fees; the DOH permit is separate, at $4.00 per space up to the $600 cap ^[3].

SWFWMD reviews most of Polk, and the district is confirmed for each parcel at the start. Per SJRWMD, "Effective July 1, 2003, the Polk County portion of SJRWMD was transferred to SWFWMD."

Design standards that bind the layout

The numeric floor is state law. Chapter 64E-15 sets the numbers below; its operative site rule was last amended 12-30-09 ^[3]. Polk's Section 303 adds its own standards on top.

The provisions that bind the layout, quoted from the DOH, the Legislature and the Lake County staff report:

"Each recreational vehicle space shall contain a minimum of 1,200 square feet." 64E-15.002(3)(a) ^[3]

"The density shall not exceed 25 recreational vehicle units per acre of gross site." 64E-15.002(3)(b) ^[3]

"Recreational vehicle parks constructed after the effective date of this rule shall provide a potable water supply station for each 100 spaces, or fraction thereof, that do not have water hookups at the site." 64E-15.003(3)(b) ^[3]

Parks "which offer spaces to non self-contained units, shall provide the minimum required sanitary fixtures for each 25 non self-contained spaces or fractions thereof." 64E-15.005(3) ^[3]

"Separation distances between recreational vehicle sites within a recreational vehicle park must be the distances established at the time of the initial approval of the recreational vehicle park by the department and the local government." F.S. 513.1115(1) ^[7]

"Setback distances from the exterior property boundary of the recreational vehicle park must be the setback distances established at the time of the initial approval by the department and the local government." F.S. 513.1115(2) ^[9]

"this section supersedes any county, municipality, or special district ordinance or regulation regarding the lot size, lot density, or separation or setback distance of a recreational vehicle park which goes into effect after the initial permitting and construction of the park." F.S. 513.1115(4) ^[7]

Lake LDR 3.02.05(D), as quoted by staff: "existing and future RV parks shall not exceed 8.71 spaces per gross acre of land." ^[23]

Two more state provisions shape the plan; their text was read through a code mirror, so they are paraphrased here. Every park must leave room for parking, loading and maneuvering so that no unit needs sidewalks, rights-of-way or private ground outside the park (64E-15.002(1)(b)), and spaces must be graded so that drainage leaves no standing water under the unit (64E-15.002(1)(a)) ^[24]. Parks built after the dump station rule took effect provide one sanitary dump station for each 100 spaces or fraction, or one for each 250 spaces or fraction when more than half the spaces have sewer hookups (64E-15.004(5)) ^[22].

Local zoning elsewhere in Florida shows how far below the state cap a district can sit: Malabar's RVP district (Ordinance 2021-09) requires 5 acres minimum and allows at most 15 RV sites per gross acre ^[25]. For a cross-state comparison of caps, see RV sites per acre and RV park regulations by state.

Determination: as proposed and as resized

The state cap does not decide this program. On 20 gross acres the state permits up to 500 RV units, so the 25 per acre cap rarely binds a 10 to 30 acre, 150-site program ^[3]. At 25 units per acre and 1,200 square feet each, spaces would occupy 30,000 of 43,560 square feet, or 69 percent of every gross acre, which is achievable only with almost no amenities or stormwater area ^[3]. The model's own range runs from 3 to 15 sites per gross acre: 80 sites on 30 acres up to 150 sites on 10 acres.

The closest documented Central Florida benchmark, Haines Creek RV Village in Lake County, planned 159 lots on 27.71 gross acres at 5.73 gross and 7.1 net units per acre, against a Lake cap of 8.71 spaces per gross acre ^[23]. The documents for this page do not state a final site count for the Polk model after Section 303, so none is given here.

The 513.1115 lock-in turns the first approved site plan into a long-lived asset: the separations and setbacks drawn at initial approval become the park's permanent entitlement ^[7]. That is the strongest reason to draw the full master plan, not just the first phase, before the first approval.

Site data and yield

The site data table carries the items that govern this model. Values are from the cited documents; the county's Section 303 numbers are added from the current code at pre-application.

Yield in Polk is a drainage and wetland question first. Under 62-330.020(2) a permit is required for any of: work in wetlands, more than 4,000 sq ft of vehicular impervious area, more than 9,000 sq ft of total impervious area, a project area over 5 acres, impounding over 40 acre-feet, or being part of a larger common plan ^[6]. The self-certification general permit under F.S. 403.814(12) is only for "less than 10 acres of total project area and less than two acres of impervious surface," and SWFWMD has "no additional District-specific thresholds" beyond the statewide rule ^{[4, 26]}. A SWFWMD standard general permit covers less than 100 acres of project area and less than 1 acre of wetland impacts, so a design that keeps wetland impacts under 1 acre stays out of an individual permit ^[27]. Chapter 62-330 and the ERP Applicant's Handbook Volumes I and II were amended effective June 28, 2024, with new water quality performance standards (Volume I Sections 8.0 and 9.0) and operation and maintenance changes (Section 12.0) ^[26]. Parts of Lake, Marion and Sumter counties carry added SJRWMD thresholds, for example 12 or more acres of impervious area ^[28].

DOH separately evaluates each new park site to confirm it is not subject to environmental hazards (64E-15.002(1)(a)) ^[24]. In a special flood hazard area, an RV must meet manufactured home elevation and anchoring unless it "is on the site for fewer than 180 consecutive days, or is fully licensed and ready for highway use" (44 CFR 60.3(c)(14)) ^[29]. Polk charges a flood hazard review ($254 under 5 acres, $500 over) and a flood study ($500) ^[5]; the floodplain ordinance itself, including any freeboard, is applied by the engineer of record.

Comparable approvals and denials, 2021 to 2026

No applicant RV park conditional use with a full staff report, vote and conditions was found for unincorporated Polk in 2021 to 2026. The record below is the county's own RV rulemaking, Polk hearing records for park-type uses, and two comparables outside Polk, with source quality stated. Two further Polk park-type decisions from 2025 and 2026 appear only in third-party meeting summaries; they are left out until the county's own minutes or staff reports are read.

For county-wide context, the third-party tracker ZoneWire (secondary) reports a 72% approval rate on 18 special exception or conditional use decisions and says "Polk County approved 87% of 194 land-use decisions in the last 24 months" ^[33]. The Polk hearing records show the county processing RV and manufactured-housing parks through land use changes and PDs, and Thornhill Road shows a park entitlement giving way to single-family lots ^[30].

Haines Creek is the comparable with a full public file. The existing park was approved by CUP #119-5 on March 10, 1969 and amended on May 14, 1985; staff describe it as a "+55 community (12.91 ± acres)" with 90 lots, about 6.97 lots per acre ^[23]. The request took the site from Rural Transition to PUD, with flood zones "AE" and "X", and the concept plan committed to 25 percent open space, a 50 ft wetland buffer, 25 ft Type B buffers on the south and west, an RV ISR of 0.75, 35 ft height, and well and septic service under "Appropriate permits through St. Johns River Water Management District and the Florida Department of Health" ^[23]. Traffic was 60 PM peak hour trips on a County Road 44 segment operating at 82 percent of capacity, LOS C, and as a 55-and-over community it was not subject to school concurrency ^[23]. The staff report records no opposition themes, and the City of Leesburg stated it had "no comments" ^[23]. Its concept plan carried the note "Plans are Conceptual Only and are subject to engineering" and took the comprehensive plan amendment to hearing without a seal ^[23].

Copper Penny sought Marion's Recreation Vehicle Park (P-RV) classification, LDC Sec. 4.2.25 ^[34]. Read through a secondary mirror (elaws) of the Marion County code, P-RV sets a 1,500 sq ft lot for a park model or travel trailer without additions and 2,400 sq ft with additions, 30 ft and 35 ft minimum widths, 15 ft unit-to-unit separation for park models, 10 ft between additions, a 20 ft front setback reducible to 8 ft where parking is provided elsewhere, a 10 ft rear setback and a 40 ft height, and it still requires a service building with toilets, showers and laundry ^[35].

Cost and phasing benchmarks

Florida hard cost per site is not published in the documents for this page. Market evidence and Polk's own fee lines follow, each labelled.

Phasing runs through DOH as well as the county. Adding spaces counts as a modification under 64E-15.001(6), and Rule 64E-15.010(1)(c) requires a permit holder to "notify the local county health department in writing at least 30 days prior to the modification of any park" ^[3]. Every phase is therefore a DOH modification filing ^[3]. Because a conceptual ERP approval holds for 20 years once the first phase starts ^[39], and 513.1115 fixes separations at initial approval ^[7], the master plan is drawn whole and built in phases. National cost context is in the RV park cost post and the 2026 per-pad benchmarks post.

Submittal anatomy: what the preliminary plan carries

The DOH layout drawing and the county land use or PD plan are layout documents; the engineering documents follow them. The preliminary site plan carries the first column; the engineer, surveyor and architect of record carry the second.

DOH accepts an unscaled, non-engineer drawing only for existing parks with space dimensions shown (64E-15.010(2)(b)) and for consolidations (64E-15.010(2)(d)) ^[3]. For an existing park without plans on file, the drawing "does not have to be drawn to scale or completed by an engineer if the space dimensions are shown"; new parks under (2)(c) must be "drawn to scale," and the rule states no seal requirement ^[3].

Polk staff reports attach a location map, a future land use map, context and close aerials, the site plan and the applicant's justification (example: the LDLVAR-2025-37 exhibits list) ^[40]. Polk Activity Center Plan staff reports also carry applicant map exhibits (for example LDCT-2024-27), with architectural standards reviewed "as part of the Level 2 process" and a template that uses fully shielded "dark sky" fixtures ^[41]. The Lake comparable's concept plan carried a site data table, "Typical RV Lot" details and a "Typical 25' Buffer" section ^[23]. No retrieved Polk, Lake or Marion RV park standard requires renderings or elevations, so the site plan, the typical lot detail, the buffer section and an aerial context view are the exhibits that answer the hearing's "how it fits" question; see RV park and resort rendering.

Conditions and handoff

The conditions to anticipate, from Polk's record, the Lake comparable and the state rules:

• Parcel conditions: Appendix E conditions can bar RV parks outright and impose JLUS dark-sky lighting, as Ord. 2024-037 does on CR 630 east of Frostproof ^[15].
• Utilities: central sewer is mandatory where a line is available under Section 702, and a PD more than one mile from water and wastewater services is not eligible for consideration ^[8].
• Comparable conditions: the Lake approval carried open space, wetland and Type B buffers, an impervious ratio, a height limit, and water management district and DOH permits for well and septic ^[23].
• DOH operation: file on DH Form 4037 "at least 30 days before a park or camp's operations are scheduled to begin"; spaces clearly identified; garbage collected twice weekly ^[3].
• Stay length: a guest occupying for more than six months creates "a rebuttable presumption that the occupancy is nontransient," and Chapter 83 eviction applies (F.S. 513.01(12)) ^[9]; Polk's own public campgrounds cap stays at 14 consecutive days and 100 days per year, which applies to county parks only ^[42].
• Rebuild: after a disaster the park may rebuild "on the same site using the same density standards that were approved and permitted" (F.S. 513.1115(3)) ^[9].
• Fire: state firesafety standards under F.S. 633.206 apply, carved out of DOH rule authority by F.S. 513.05 ^[9].

The handoff to the engineer and architect of record is the sealed set: the boundary survey, the engineered Level 2 site plan for the Development Review Committee, the ERP design under 62-330 as amended in 2024, the water and sewer plans under 64E-15.010(2)(e) and (f), the traffic study, the flood study and the building permits ^{[3, 26]}. Park buildings are permitted under the Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023), effective December 31, 2023 per the Florida Building Commission, alongside Rule 64E-15.006, and the edition in force is confirmed on the permit date ^[21].

The same split between the preliminary layout and the sealed set runs through the Bandera County, Texas resort case, the Mohave County, Arizona snowbird park, the Sevier County, Tennessee resort and the other case studies. The RV park site plan hub sets out what each preliminary plan includes, and RV park design standards compares the numbers across states.

By Viola Sauer, Principal, Innowave Studio