Maybe you and your wife should sit down and brainstorm your goals and desired outcomes and then set about making an actionable plan to move towards achieving this.

An incompetent sponsor—good outcome unlikely.2.

What was the outcome?

If you are a licensed contractor for instance and capable of major remodeling projects as your trade, this would be considered adding value to the property and would risk IRS action.Sounds like "improving" or "upgrading" the place is not allowed.

These loans that include future rehab will come in different flavors from current 7's to 12%'s in rates with different speeds to close, ease of access to the funds, different pricing and requirements to qualify.Typically the more Full Doc or tougher the qualifications are (like debt to income or DTI req's) the lower your rate/pricing so its a trade off.

If you want to move the property quickly and ensure income, seller financing seems more practical despite the tax trade-offs.

I'm in a good position now and don't want to trade a career that is OK for something I don't like. 

I am thinking there could be some bad outcomes.

This would in-turn increase the building value.I have identified total costs and time for this potential change, and was curious what resources or anecdotes you may have to analyze the cost of the zoning change vs the residual outcome and lift in value driven by an increased buyer pool.

I've heard of being a J violation.Here's a linkhttps://www2.myfloridalicense.com/construction-industry/faqs/#:~:text=A%20%E2%80%9Cj%E2%80%9D%20violation%20is%20abandoning,failed%20to%20perform%20without%20cause.your contract may have an impact on the outcome.