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My City: Facts on Florida Cities
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There are 412 cities, towns and villages in Florida. For these lessons, the word city will be used to refer to all these municipal terms. The capital city of Florida is Tallahassee.
Pensacola and St. Augustine are Florida’s oldest cities; both were chartered in 1822. St. Augustine was settled in 1565 and is the oldest continuously occupied community in U.S. history, having been founded 55 years before Plymouth Rock.
The youngest cities in Florida are Cutler Bay in Miami-Dade County (incorporated in 2005), Grant-Valkaria in Brevard County (incorporated in 2006) and Loxahatchee Groves in Palm Beach County (incorporated in 2006).
More than 7 million Floridians living in incorporated areas. The percentage of Floridians living in incorporated areas is 50.5 percent.
Florida’s 10 Largest Cities
Jacksonville: 816,648
Miami: 386,882
Tampa: 326,519
St. Petersburg: 253,902
Hialeah: 230,407
Orlando: 217,567
Tallahassee: 174,781
Fort Lauderdale: 171,344
Pembroke Pines: 151,045
Hollywood: 143,025
Source: Bureau of Economic and Business Research, University of Florida, 2005.
Many cities in Florida have a surprisingly small population. For example, Miami, which is often assumed to be Florida’s largest city, is actually much smaller than Jacksonville. This is because the City of Miami is actually part of a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), a large urban area consisting of a central city and several smaller municipalities which are dependent on the central city for jobs, services, shopping and entertainment. The population of the MSA known as Miami, which includes Hialeah, Miami Beach and Coral Gables, is well over 1 million people. Tampa and Orlando are other cities with higher MSA populations.
Florida’s 10 Smallest Cities
Cloud Lake: 167
Otter Creek: 137
Bascom: 110
Belleair Shore: 72
Indian Creek: 56
Lazy Lake: 34
Bay Lake: 28
Lake Buena Vista: 19
Marineland: 10
Weekie Wachee: 8
Source: Bureau of Economic and Business Research, University of Florida, 2005.
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Florida has 67 counties that were created by the Legislature as an arm of the state to provide state services at the local level.
Cities in Florida are created when the Legislature responds to a request from the people living in a local area who want that area to become a city. The people making the request usually do so because they desire to determine their service delivery and to have a voice in governing themselves.
Municipal government is the oldest form of local government in Florida. Historically, the idea of a city was brought over from England and Spain through the granting of a charter by the king. The granted charter was a business contract. Today, the charter is a contract with the people to provide governmental services. No municipal government may be created without a proposed charter, and no municipal government may exist without a charter.
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According to Florida Statutes, an area should meet the following requirements in order to be eligible for incorporation:- It must be compact, contiguous, and amenable to separate municipal government.
- In a county of less than 50,000 population, it must have a population of at least 1,500 people; in more populous counties, it must have a population of at least 5,000 people.
- It must have a population density of at least 1.5 persons per acre.
- Its nearest point must be at least two miles from the boundary of an existing municipality in the county; or an extraordinary natural boundary must exist which requires a separate municipal government.
- It must have a proposed charter which meets these conditions:
- prescribes the form of government and clearly defines the responsibility for legislative and executive functions, and
- does not restrict the taxing authority granted the city council by the state constitution or general law.
These criteria are considered to be general guidelines only. A failure to meet all of these guidelines does not necessarily preclude the adoption of a special-act charter for incorporation.
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Florida Statutes allow for two possible sources of a proposed charter, a group of petitioning citizens or through the assistance of the county commission. Having been proposed by one of these methods, a charter must be adopted by the Legislature through enactment of a special act. This special act creates the municipality as a “municipal corporation,” specifies its official name and recognizes the proposed charter as the charter of the municipal government created by the act.
A city charter is the document that governs and controls a municipality. Laws passed by cities are called ordinances and are not part of the charter. Some of the items usually found in charters include provisions governing or establishing
incorporation, boundaries, and powers;
the structure and type of government the city will have;
administrative organization and function;
judicial powers and procedures;
city election procedures and regulations;
city financial powers; and
general provisions.
There are four basic forms of municipal government in Florida: council-weak mayor, council-strong mayor, commission and council-manager. The most common form of city government in Florida today is the council-manager form. A second common form, found in many smaller cities, is the council-weak mayor form.
Income to pay for government services comes from a variety of sources:
Property Tax: real property tax (land, buildings, fixtures on land) and personal property tax (moveable items such as boats, machinery, motor vehicles, stored merchandise)
Non-property Tax: local government half-cent sales tax, local option sales tax, gas taxes, tourist taxes, insurance premium tax, beverage license tax
Non-tax Revenue: charges for services, licenses and permits, intergovernmental revenue (grants from the federal or state government), fines, penalties, and forfeitures.
Municipal government provides many services to the citizens within its jurisdiction. These services fall into several general categories:
Public Safety: police, fire, animal control, building codes, disaster preparation and traffic regulation
Public Works: roads and streets, water and sewer, storm drainage, public buildings, and solid waste collection and disposal
Public Utilities: water works, sewage treatment plants, electric power, and natural gas
Planning and Development: land-use regulations and development of public property such as parks
Administration: includes internal operations, external information services, archival and other record keeping, financial and personnel operations.
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