Sweating the impacts of a new state law blocking local development rules, Central Florida governments are exploring options.
Some have joined together and plan to sue the state while others have pushed their state legislators to fix the troubling statute (SB 180), which bars counties and cities affected by any recent hurricane from adopting “more restrictive or burdensome” land use regulations.
“The terms ‘more restrictive or burdensome’ should be better defined as what may be more restrictive or burdensome is subjective,” Leslie Campione, Lake County commissioner, wrote in a six-page letter to law-makers representing the county in Tallahassee.
For example, she wrote, a developer might consider a rule requiring more stormwater ponds to be burdensome because it adds to a project’s costs but a neighboring property-owner affected by flooding may think added capacity is a reasonable regulation.
SB 180 breezed through the Legislature earlier this year with little opposition as a hurricane recovery measure. But days after it was signed into law, the new statute formed the basis of a lawsuit to revive “Sustanee,” a defeated development plan in rural east Orange.
The Orlando firm of Theriaque & Spain, attorneys for Lake Pickett North, LLC, sued Orange County for refusing to rescind rural growth controls, which stand in the way of Sustanee’s plans to build 1,800 homes on 1,300 acres of pasture lacking urban services.
“The very definition of sprawl,” Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad called it.
The new law also was frequently cited by the Florida Department of Commerce as a reason to reject 14 provisions of Orange County’s Vision 2050 growth plan as “null and void ab initio” — a phrase meaning invalid from the outset. County planners labored over the voluminous update to the county’s growth blueprint for nearly a decade, incorporating ideas from its staff, experts and citizens.
Frustrated Orange County commissioners decided last month to join the growing group of governments planning to sue.
“It’s the greatest intrusion into home-rule authority in the history of Florida since the state Constitution was adopted in 1968,” said South Florida attorney Jamie Cole, who has represented local governments for more than three decades.
Cole said he and fellow attorney Susan Trevarthen, also president of the not-for-profit 1000 Friends of Florida, plan to file the action later this month. Plaintiffs include the cities of Alachua, Deltona, Naples, Stuart, Weston and Windermere, and Manatee and Orange counties.
Clermont may sign on.
The city council in the fast-growing community in south Lake was expected Tuesday to consider joining. Council’s agenda notes SB 180 was passed “under the pretext of protecting residents against onerous restrictions in land development regulations when rebuilding due to hurricanes. In practice, the law prevents local governments from modifying their land development regulations to add almost anything…”
The state law’s prohibition clause is retroactive to Aug. 1, 2024,and can be extended to 2027 if another hurricane hits.
State rejects Orange County’s Vision 2050 growth control plan
As written, SB 180 prohibits counties within 100 miles of the track of recent Hurricanes Milton, Helene, and Debby from proposing or adopting “more restrictive or burdensome procedures” on the land development process, including comprehensive plan amendments and other development regulations.
Meanwhile, Orange County’s planning staff also have met twice in video conferences with state commerce department officials to discuss the state’s objections to Vision 2050.
State rejects Orange County’s Vision 2050 growth control plan
Jon Weiss, deputy Orange County administrator, said the aim is to find language to tweak the proposed growth plan to satisfy state authorities without undermining the blueprint’s fundamental policy objectives, which focus on smart growth and sustainable development.
“Given what SB 180 says — right or wrong, appropriate or not — it’s being implemented as law,” Weiss said.
He said resolving differences through the courts probably won’t happen quickly, making negotiations a worthwhile option.
Tanya Wilson, director of Orange County’s Planning, Environmental, and Development Services Department, was hopeful the sessions with state officials can lead to a resolution, according to an email summarizing the sessions for commissioners and administrators.
Her email said she saw an opportunity to resolve disagreements and “salvage the remainder” of Vision 2050.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com GrowthSpotter Editor Laura Kinsler contributed to this report
