Steve Geller spoke on Friday, February 27, 2026, on a panel at the Real Estate Technology & Transformation Center (RETTC) summit in Coral Gables, Florida. This panel was titled “Technology, Policy, and the Future of Housing: Why the Local Debate Matters More than Ever Setting the Landscape.” RETTC is affiliated with the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC). Prior to speaking to the panel, Geller spoke to the executive committee of RETTC.
The panel was moderated by Linda Willey, vice president of business services, Camden Property Trust, and chair of the RETTC Advocacy and Policy Committee. The other panelists were Javier Fernandez, mayor of South Miami and former Florida state representative, and Greg Bates, president and CEO of GID Development and secretary of the NMHC. Geller is a Broward County commissioner. Both Geller and Fernandez are zoning and land use attorneys – Fernandez primarily in Miami-Dade County and Geller in Broward County and South Palm Beach.
Geller was asked to discuss housing in Broward County and what he has done to improve this. He replied that almost every housing unit in the Fort Lauderdale Central Core and many other units in the county are being built using the “Geller Amendment,” a precursor to the Florida Live Local Act, which is optional to the cities, as opposed to mandatory, and also works better for developers. “I’ve served as either a state representative, state senator, mayor of Broward County or Broward County commissioner in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and now the 2020s. I’ve changed a lot of laws. One law I can’t change is the law of supply and demand. Broward County’s population has grown over the last five years or the last 25 years by around 14,000 people per year. Currently, the average household size is around 2.1 people per household, which I’ll round to two to make the math easier. That means that we need 7,000 new housing units per year just to keep up with population growth. If we build more than that, this should restrain the growth of housing prices. If we build less than that, this will increase the growth of housing prices. We need more housing.”
Another question asked of the panel was how technology is reshaping rental housing today. Geller addressed the use of AI in locating and choosing properties and determining where mixed-use development would be successful. He also discussed advances in technology for actual construction, making construction both less expensive to build (such as modular and tilt-up construction) and enabling new construction techniques that can make buildings more resilient and able to withstand floods and hurricanes better, which would reduce insurance premiums.
Geller was also asked about the Florida Live Local Act. He briefly explained it but pointed out that it had many pitfalls for several reasons. It requires a minimum of 40% of the units be set aside for affordable housing (generally “missing middle”), which can make it difficult to pencil out. It lacks predictability because the payments are based on Area Median Income (AMI), so if there is a recession and income goes down, so will allowable rent payments. Developers need predictability, and the unknown factors of when rent may decrease don’t help. The annual bookkeeping is annoying to developers, and with eligibility based on income, if a family’s income goes too high, they can be forced to leave the development, leading to increased turnover. Geller and Fernandez agreed that most frequently, the Live Local Act is used as a threat to get better development terms without actually using the Live Local Act. Geller also stated that the Live Local Act lacks some predictability, as the legislature amends it almost every year, and there are still many court cases pending on details in the Live Local Act.
For questions on the Geller Amendment, the Florida Live Local Act or any other development matters, please contact Steve Geller at [email protected], or review the web page for Geller Law Firm, PA, at www.gellerlawfirm.com.