A finished barndominium at dusk with warm interior lighting glowing through its large windows.
Broward County High Velocity Hurricane Zone

Barndominium Builders in Hollywood, FL

Hollywood's own zoning code settles the acreage question before it's even asked: the city's ten single-family districts run RS-1 through RS-10, there is no agricultural or rural-residential district anywhere in the roster, and even RS-10, the largest lot minimum in the city, tops out at 15,000 sq ft, 0.344 of an acre. The realistic Hollywood project is a compact steel-framed shouse or shop-house on a standard 40 to 100 ft city lot, not a rural build. If genuine acreage is the goal, Southwest Ranches and Davie, both a short drive west, and pockets of unincorporated Broward actually carry it; Hollywood, squeezed between Fort Lauderdale's urban core and the Miami-Dade line with no vacant land left to subdivide, does not.

Hollywood at a glance

County
Broward County
Population
159,073
Also serving in Broward County
Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, Davie
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Building conditions in Hollywood

What actually changes from one Florida city to the next: who issues the permit, what wind speed the structure has to be engineered to, and what the ground is like. These are the numbers your drawings have to satisfy.

Build conditions for Hollywood, Broward County: design wind speed 170 mph, outside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone. BUILD CONDITIONS HOLLYWOOD, FL Broward CountyOUTSIDE THE HVHZWIND-BORNE DEBRIS ZONE DESIGN WIND SPEED 170 mphFlat HVHZ county figure, prescribed rather than mappedZONING · RS-1 TO RS-1015,000 sq ft at RS-10No agricultural or rural district anywhere in the cityPERMIT REVIEW CLOCK30 business daysF.S. 553.792 · fee drops 10% per day lateCITY IMPACT FEE$5,073 under 1,500 sq ftFire, police, government buildings, parks, multimodalWHO ISSUES THE PERMITCity of Hollywood Building DivisionNot Broward County
Build conditions for Hollywood, drawn from the sourced facts on this page. Every figure above is cited in the quick-facts panel below, with its source and vintage.
No agricultural or rural-residential zoning exists here
Hollywood's Zoning and Land Development Regulations run ten single-family districts, RS-1 through RS-10, plus multifamily, commercial, and overlay districts, and none of them is agricultural, rural, or estate-style. RS-10, the largest, requires a 15,000 sq ft lot, 100 ft of width, and tops out at 0.344 of an acre. That's the ceiling for a legally single-family Hollywood parcel; there's nothing bigger on the books.

City of Hollywood Zoning and Land Development Regulations, Article 4, via amlegal Code Library (codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/hollywood/latest/hollywoodldr_fl), version 2025 S-51, current through Ordinance O-2025-07 (passed 7-2-25).

Design wind speed
170 mph for a house, Risk Category II, prescribed flat by county rather than read off a map, because Hollywood sits inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone along with the rest of Broward. Coastal Hollywood Beach and inland mainland parcels get the identical number. 175 mph is a Miami-Dade figure, not a Broward one, and the two get conflated constantly in HVHZ marketing copy.

Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023) § 1620, Risk Category II; § 202 HVHZ definition (Broward and Miami-Dade counties only, boundary is the county line). Applies to Hollywood countywide with no local carve-out.

Flood insurance discount beats Fort Lauderdale
Hollywood carries a Community Rating System Class 6, a 20% discount on National Flood Insurance Program premiums in the Special Flood Hazard Area, one class better than Fort Lauderdale's Class 7 (15%/10%). Community ID 125113, current class effective 1 May 2012. Over 11,000 Hollywood properties sit in the Special Flood Hazard Area, spanning both the barrier island east of the Intracoastal and the mainland.

FEMA 'CRS Eligible Communities' list, April 2025 effective-date edition, row: FL 125113 Hollywood, City of, Class 6, 20%. Each of Broward's 31 municipalities runs its own class; do not carry Fort Lauderdale's discount figure onto a Hollywood quote.

Impact fee schedule, by house size
Hollywood's own calculated single-family impact fee, stacked across Fire Rescue, Law Enforcement, Government Buildings, Parks & Rec, and Multi-Modal: $5,073 total under 1,500 sq ft, $5,693 from 1,500-2,499 sq ft, $6,388 at 2,500 sq ft and up. Bigger house, bigger fee, in three clean tiers.

Tindale Oliver City of Hollywood Impact Fee Study, as published in the FY2026 Comprehensive Schedule of Fees, Resolution R-2025-2026 ('Master Impact Fee Schedule'). Whether Broward County layers a separate county-level impact fee on top of this city schedule, or the city fee fully substitutes inside city limits, we verify with Hollywood Development Services or Broward County Planning before quoting an all-in total.

Private-provider route has an actual discount attached
Hollywood publishes real numbers for using a licensed private provider instead of waiting on city plan review: processing fees drop 28% (you pay 72% of standard), and building inspection fees drop 16% (you pay 84% of standard). That's on top of the statewide entitlement to use a private provider at all, and it's a genuine Hollywood-specific figure, smaller than Gainesville's 75% discount or Leon County's 60%, but real money on a project this size.

City of Hollywood, 'Comprehensive Schedule of Fees,' Resolution R-2025-2026, Department of Development Services § Building. Statewide private-provider entitlement is F.S. 553.791.

A premium niche, not a volume market
Broward County authorized just 730 single-family homes in all of 2025, only 26% of residential permits, down from 36% the year before, across a county of two million people. That countywide figure is the best available benchmark for Hollywood specifically: this is a small, high-value custom-build niche, not a subdivision market.

US Census Building Permits Survey county files, 2024 and 2025. Broward County figures are used here as the best available benchmark for Hollywood's market size.

Also worth knowing before you build in Hollywood

What the HVHZ demands of a metal building
Roof and wall sheets must run 24 gauge minimum, against the 26 and 29 gauge the national kit market builds to, and a Florida-licensed engineer has to seal the site-specific adaptation, foundation, and anchorage as one system. Connections need a minimum 400 lb per linear foot of lateral resistance.

FBC § 2223.8.4, § 2223.8.5, § 2222.4.3, § 2223.5. Applies to Hollywood exactly, since the HVHZ boundary is the county line and Hollywood has no partial exemption.

Exposure Category C, no exceptions
There's no Exposure B anywhere in the HVHZ, however sheltered a lot feels. A suburban Hollywood parcel tucked well inland of Hollywood Beach still gets engineered to Exposure C, which adds load the national kit market doesn't plan for.

FBC § 1620.3.

Who issues your permit
City of Hollywood Building Division, Department of Development Services, handles it, not Broward County. Applications, review, payment, and inspection scheduling all run through the Accela Citizen Access portal. Development Services Hub, 2nd Floor, City Hall Circle, 2600 Hollywood Blvd.

hollywoodfl.org/328/Building, phone 954-921-3335 option 1.

Permit review deadline applies with no HVHZ carve-out
30 business days for a single-family home under 7,500 sq ft, with a 10% permit-fee cut for every business day the city runs late. Being in the HVHZ doesn't buy Hollywood's building department extra time.

F.S. 553.792, applying to Hollywood exactly as it does statewide, no local exception found.

Base permit fee stacks with a 25% processing fee
New construction pays a tiered percentage of declared work value, 2.20% from $1,001 to $1,000,000, dropping to 1.65% and then 1.15% at higher tiers, plus a separate, non-refundable processing fee equal to 25% of the estimated job cost. On top of that: 3% combined state surcharge, a Broward County surcharge of $0.52 per $1,000 of value, a 2% technology fee, and a 1% educational fee.

City of Hollywood, 'Comprehensive Schedule of Fees,' Resolution R-2025-2026.

Utility capacity fees, separate from impact and permit fees
A new single-family water and sewer connection runs $3,260 (sewer reserve capacity $2,130 plus water reserve capacity $1,130), plus $150 in deposits, plus tapping and meter-installation charges that run $1,349 plus $531 for a standard 5/8" meter.

City of Hollywood FY2026 Comprehensive Schedule of Fees, Development Services.

A shop or workshop accessory structure is a use-compatibility review, not a size cap
Decks, pools, sheds, and similar accessory uses are allowed as-of-right if customarily associated with a single-family home; anything else, including a dedicated workshop, needs Planning Director approval against a compatibility test rather than hitting a hard size limit. Hollywood has not published a standalone ADU ordinance under the state's 2023 ADU-authorization statute.

Hollywood ZLDR § 4.1.E, current through Ordinance O-2025-07.

A second kitchen effectively can't become a rental unit
Hollywood allows a second kitchen or in-law suite only with Planning Director approval, on a floor plan of at least 3,600 sq ft excluding garage, with a single electric and water meter, no exterior doorway, and a recorded covenant against renting the space. It's a real option for multigenerational living, not a path to a legal duplex.

Hollywood ZLDR § 4.1, single-family district regulations.

Rainfall, from Hollywood's own weather station
61.98 inches a year at Hollywood North Perry Airport, Hollywood's own NOAA station rather than a borrowed regional figure, distinct from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International reading a few miles north. Roof drainage and site grading get designed for that number.

NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals, station USW00092809 (Hollywood North Perry Airport), queried directly against the NCEI API.

Hurricane exposure, measured nearby
Hollywood North Perry Airport's own control tower and roof took damage during Hurricane Wilma (2005). The best documented wind figures for the area are Fort Lauderdale's: 70 mph sustained, 99 mph gust, with the National Hurricane Service noting Broward's monitoring stations likely under-recorded near their peak readings. The code still requires design to 170 mph, well above what Wilma delivered.

NOAA National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report, Hurricane Wilma (2005). Fort Lauderdale figures are used here as the best documented benchmark for the area.

Boxed in on both flanks
Hollywood sits on the Atlantic coast directly between Fort Lauderdale's urban core to the north and the Miami-Dade County line a few miles to its south, with no vacant land reserve on either side to absorb acreage-style development. That geography, not just the zoning code, is why the city's largest single-family lot tops out at 0.344 of an acre.

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Hollywood city, Florida; City of Hollywood ZLDR Article 4. Land area 27.27-27.3 sq mi.

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Below the slab

The expensive surprises are in the ground, not the building

Most of Broward County rates poorly for dwellings in the soil survey, and the reason is water sitting close to the surface rather than weak ground. That makes the pad elevation and the drainage plan the two line items most likely to move your budget. We price the dirt before we price the building.

What we build in Hollywood

Every service we offer is available across Broward County, from a shell kit you erect yourself to a finished home we hand you the keys to. What a build costs depends far more on the parcel than on square footage, so we price against your land rather than publishing a rate card.

See all nine services

What a build looks like

Three stages every Hollywood project passes through, from a raw parcel to a finished home. Site work first, because that is where the budget is decided.

Aerial view of an undeveloped rural Florida lot with cleared grass, pine scrub and a sandy access track.
Stage one

The parcel

Zoning, setbacks, flood zone and utility access get checked before anything is drawn.

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Stage two

Pad and permit

Clearing, grading and a compacted pad, while the submittal works through Broward County.

A finished barndominium at dusk with warm interior lighting glowing through its large windows.
Stage three

Frame to finish

Shell erected and dried in, then systems, insulation and interior finish through to CO.

Those are the rules for Broward County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

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Where we build around Hollywood

Broward County and the rural land around it. The buildable acreage for a project this size usually sits outside the city limits, which is frequently what changes who issues your permit.

Our Hollywood service area, covering Broward County and the surrounding rural acreage. We build across this area from our office in Lake Mary, FL — this map marks the territory we serve, not a branch location.

Keep reading

The questions that usually come next once you know what Hollywood allows.

Is It Legal in Florida?

Classification, zoning, and what the High Velocity Hurricane Zone actually requires in Broward County.

Read it

Barndominium Cost Guide

Sourced ranges by tier, plus the Florida adders that land on top of a national average.

Read it

How Long Does It Take?

Census build-duration data, and the Florida statute capping permit review at 30 business days.

Read it

Sources for this page

The primary documents behind the Hollywood figures above. We would rather you checked them than took our word for it.

Nearby areas we build in

Close to Hollywood, though the permitting authority and wind requirements can differ once you cross a county line.

Fort Lauderdale

Broward County

HVHZ
Pembroke Pines

Broward County

HVHZ
Miramar

Broward County

HVHZ

Building in Hollywood: common questions

9 questions we get asked most often about building in Hollywood. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.

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Can I build a barndominium on acreage in Hollywood?
No, not inside city limits, and we'd rather tell you that up front than sell you a survey first. Hollywood's zoning code runs ten single-family districts, RS-1 through RS-10, and none of them is agricultural or rural-residential. RS-10, the largest, requires a 15,000 sq ft lot, which works out to 0.344 of an acre, well under half an acre and nowhere close to what most people picture when they say barndominium. What we can build in Hollywood is a compact steel-framed shouse or shop-house on a standard city lot. If real acreage is the goal, Southwest Ranches and Davie, both close by in Broward, and parts of unincorporated Broward actually carry it, and we build there too.
What wind speed does my building have to be engineered to?
170 mph, Risk Category II for a house, and it isn't a number you read off a map. Hollywood sits inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, which covers all of Broward and Miami-Dade counties with no distance-to-coast test, so the code prescribes 170 mph flat, whether your lot is on Hollywood Beach or well inland toward the Miami-Dade line. Worth flagging directly: 175 mph is a Miami-Dade figure, not Broward's, and vendor copy conflates the two constantly.
Will a stock metal building kit from out of state work here?
Almost certainly not without modification, and this is the single most expensive assumption to get wrong. The national kit market runs 26 and 29 gauge roof and wall panels; the HVHZ floor here is 24 gauge, and that applies to every parcel in Hollywood since the HVHZ boundary is the county line. On top of that, a Florida-licensed engineer has to seal the site-specific adaptation, including foundation and anchorage, as one system, and the roof needs product approval as a complete assembly rather than component by component. A package priced for Georgia or Texas will not clear plan review here.
Who issues my building permit, the city or the county?
The city. Hollywood's own Building Division, part of the Department of Development Services, handles permitting inside city limits, not Broward County. Everything runs through the Accela Citizen Access portal: application, review, payment, and inspection scheduling. The physical office is the Development Services Hub on the 2nd floor of City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Blvd, and the building customer service line is 954-921-3335, option 1.
How long does permit review take, and does being in the HVHZ slow it down?
No, being in the HVHZ doesn't buy Hollywood's building department extra time. The statutory 30 business day clock for a single-family home under 7,500 sq ft applies here exactly as it does statewide, and the city has to cut its permit fee by 10% for every business day it runs past that deadline. A licensed private-provider route is also available if you want independent plan review instead of waiting in the city's queue, and Hollywood sweetens that option with its own discount, see below.
What are the impact fees for a new single-family home in Hollywood?
Hollywood runs a three-tier schedule by house size: $5,073 total under 1,500 sq ft, $5,693 from 1,500 to 2,499 sq ft, and $6,388 at 2,500 sq ft and up, covering Fire Rescue, Law Enforcement, Government Buildings, Parks & Rec, and Multi-Modal impact fees together. On top of that expect utility capacity fees of roughly $3,260 for a new water and sewer connection, plus deposits and tapping charges. One thing we verify directly rather than assume: whether Broward County layers a separate county-level impact fee on top of the city's, or the city fee is a full substitute. We confirm that with Hollywood Development Services or Broward County Planning before quoting an all-in number.
Is there a discount for using a private provider instead of city plan review?
Yes, and Hollywood publishes actual numbers rather than leaving it to the generic statewide entitlement. Plan review processing fees drop 28% when a licensed private provider handles review, and building inspection fees drop 16% when a private provider handles inspections. It's a smaller discount than some Florida cities offer, but it's real, it's Hollywood-specific, and it stacks with the faster turnaround a private provider usually delivers.
What's the flood insurance situation in Hollywood?
Better than most of Broward, actually. Hollywood carries a Community Rating System Class 6, worth a 20% discount on National Flood Insurance Program premiums for properties in the Special Flood Hazard Area, one class better than neighboring Fort Lauderdale's Class 7. That matters here because Hollywood spans both a barrier island, Hollywood Beach, and the mainland, and the city itself notes over 11,000 properties sit in the Special Flood Hazard Area, concentrated east of US1.
Can I build a shop with living quarters attached instead of a standalone house?
There's a workable path, but it runs through a discretionary review rather than an as-of-right rule. Accessory structures customarily associated with a single-family home, sheds, garages, and similar, are allowed by right; anything more unusual, like a dedicated workshop, needs Planning Director approval against a compatibility test. A second kitchen or in-law suite is possible too, but only with approval, a minimum 3,600 sq ft of floor area, one utility meter, no separate exterior entrance, and a recorded covenant against renting it out. Hollywood hasn't published a standalone accessory-dwelling-unit ordinance, so we treat this as a case-by-case conversation with the Planning Director's office rather than a guaranteed right.

Building in Hollywood?

Start with the plan. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it, then confirm what Broward County will actually let you put on the parcel and what wind load it has to meet. That conversation costs nothing.

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