Our lawmakers in Tallahassee who are supposed to represent us have gone nuts this year. They want to turn Florida into their own little private nation where they can rule to their hearts content and disregard the people.
Lately we have seen time and again moves to curtail local authority and make Tallahassee the overruling power.
We could say “shame” but our Citizens-United-store-bought lawmakers don’t have that word in their vocabulary.
Read the original article with photos here in Florida Weekly.
Florida environmental policy and smart-growth advocates are feverishly lobbying against eight legislative proposals that they say will strip local governments of authority, open the door to unregulated development and hamstring taxpayers who choose to fight back.
And, they say, the bills filed in the current session are in direct opposition to executive orders Gov. Ron DeSantis issued on Jan. 10, in his first executive order, 23-06, of his second term as governor. Critics and supporters now widely acknowledge the governor is using the term to seek both the Republican nomination and the presidency next year.
The proposals, all by Republicans, include legislation to:
• redefine “sprawl” as merely “unplanned development”
• allow government officials to meet out of public view with developers suing them for inhibiting development plans on environmentally sensitive land
• significantly reduce the time local governments have to review proposed zoning changes or approve or deny building permits
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• prevent local citizens and governments from regulating their own land development, and
• make citizens pay all attorney and court fees if they challenge seemingly illegal development plans in court, and lose.
House Bill 1197, which critics are calling the “dirty-water bill,” reads this way: “Prohibits counties and municipalities from adopting laws, regulations, rules, or policies relating to water quality or water quantity, pollution control, discharge prevention or removal, or wetlands and preempts such regulation to the state; requires DEP (the Department of Environmental Protection) to notify CFO (the Chief Financial Officer) of certain violations; requires CFO to withhold certain funds; repeals provisions relating to land management review teams.”
In other words, the bill proposes to lop the head off the body of a longtime venerable notion in government: home rule, and the ability of local governments to shape their own growth and water quality within common standards established by the state, the critics say. If they step out of line, state funding would be cut off to that city or county. Sponsored by Rep. Randy Maggard, R-54, from Dade City, if it becomes law on July 1, it would be as radical a change in the way things are done in Florida as then-Gov. Rick Scott’s evisceration of environmental regulations by abolishing the Department of Community Affairs and laying off more than 200 regulators with environmental scientists 12 years ago, in 2011. That was when now-Sen. Scott forbade state employees to use the term “climate change” in any official documents or public conversations, or risk being fired.
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“House Bill 1197 and its companion, Senate Bill 1240: Those bills would prohibit local governments from passing their own rules having to do with water quality, pollution control and wetlands,” said Gil Smart, executive director of the Florida nonprofit organization, VoteWater.org.
“Martin County has a strict wetlands rule, for example. If this bill passes, that rule would go away. The fertilizer ordinances in 34 counties would go away — and those are just attempts at pollution control.”
Local governments resisting development that ignores comprehensive plans designed to control the pace of growth — which is inevitable but doesn’t have to be disastrous, notes Mr. Smart — would be effectively stiff-armed by this bill.
“We call this the dirty-water bill. If the dirty-water bill passes, it will fly in the face of the governor’s aspirational executive order,” says Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. “And there are other bills that will defy the spirit of sound development.”
The dirty-water bill plus seven
The so-called dirty-water bill comes before lawmakers this session with seven other newly sponsored bills, some with companion bills in the House or Senate, dealt into the Tallahassee mix like bad cards in a game of seven-card stud, the critics say.
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Two of those — House Bills 671 and 383 — could require hasty scrambling or additional hiring on the part of city and county staffs if they intend to meet new legislative requirements that would force quicker responses to building permit applications and proposed zoning changes, variances and other development orders.
In Cape Coral, part of the Cape Coral
Fort Myers area listed as the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States last year, spokeswoman Kaitlyn Mullens suggested some changes to those bills might be necessary.
According to a city building department report, Cape Coral received 8,521 applications for permits in February; the city issued 8,132.
“City staff have reviewed the new requirements in HB 671 and HB 383 and are proactively preparing for any approved changes,” she said. “We are providing our state representatives with recommended modifications to meet the spirit of both bills best, and ensuring that our development services staff have the tools and resources needed to meet the new standards.”
Neither she nor any city staff were able to say what those recommended modifications might be at the end of last week.
Those two bills are far from the worst of the bunch, in the eyes of some.
“House Bill 359 that allows the prevailing party to collect all attorneys’ fees (in a court challenge to development that flies in the face of a comprehensive plan) will be the death knell for planning, so it’s the worst bill, in my opinion,” says Jane West, the policy and planning director of the nonprofit 1000 Friends of Florida. “Since we no longer have state oversight of planning, it’s left to the courts. And if citizens (without deep pockets) don’t have the ability to challenge without prevailing-party attorney fee obligations, we’ll get the worst results.” (A list outlining the proposed bills individually accompanies this story.)
Telephone messages seeking comment, and when their aides requested it, email requests, were delivered to each bill sponsor in the House, and to one sponsoring senator, all listed below. None responded by press time.
Legislators who did not comment: Rep. Stan McClain, R-27, HB 439; Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-12, HB 359; Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-83, HB 397; Rep. Alina Garcia, R-115, HB 856; Sen. Jay Trumbull, R-2, SB 170; Rep. Philip Griffitts, R-6, HB 383; and Rep. Tiffany Esposito, R-77, HB 671.
Each bill is seemingly designed to open the doors to a Florida development less restrained by smart-growth standards for land and water use; less restrained by citizen challenges to development plans that ignore county comprehensive plans; and less restrained by local government control of city and county resources and growth.
The bills also appear to contravene the marching orders Gov. DeSantis issued to legislators and state officials in his first executive order of 2023.
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The governor required the DEP, the Department of Economic Opportunity and city and county governments in unison “to improve local government long-term comprehensive planning that ensures sustainable growth while protecting our natural resources.”
That’s not going to happen if these bills pass, according to the chorus of environmental policy advocates. And unless citizens raise a stink with their legislators by telephone and email in the coming days, they are likely to be adopted by the Legislature, notes Ms. West, whose 1,000 Friends of Florida traditionally focuses specifically on growth in Florida rather than its environmental challenges.
But growth and environmental challenges are now deeply connected, she says. What isn’t, are those bills along with the governor’s imperative for moving forward, she said.
“There’s a genuine disconnect between these bills and the governor’s assertions. These lawmakers are beholden to special interests,” she says. “I’m not saying the governor is immune to them, but these lawmakers are responsive to special interests within their jurisdictions. Their bills are brutal attacks on planning.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered his State of the State address March 7 to the joint legislative session from the Florida House of Representatives chamber in Tallahassee, kicking off the 2023 legislative session.
If the bills pass, she predicts the state will look significantly different in a few years, both to Floridians and to outsiders.
“Barring recession, look at the rate of development in the last thee years and the explosive growth that factored into citizens no longer challenging development in court without being hit with attorneys’ fees if they lose,” and you can see where we’ll be, she said.
“Rampant development will forever scar the landscape of Florida. And you can’t get it back, when that happens. As they say, the last crop is rooftops.
“So Florida is not going to be the place where people want to work and play and live.”
Other smart growth environmental apologists critical of the development bills include Friends of the Everglades, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Defenders of Wildlife, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Florida Oceanographic Society, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and the Sierra Club.
If these bills pass in combination, or even several of them together, “We’ll see a Florida with more sprawl, more traffic, more air pollution, diminished citizen involvement, fewer wetlands, higher taxes, greater hurricane risk and greater vulnerability to sea level rise,” said Ms. Samples.
And it won’t matter, they add, how big a sum is aimed exclusively at Everglades restoration.
In addition, said April Olson, senior environmental planning specialist for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, “If these bills become law, you can expect more harmful algal blooms of both blue-green algae and red tide, preserves and wetlands converted to development gridlock, much higher taxes and many of Florida’s special places gone.”
Pushing back
The hour is late, but the outcome is not determined, they say.
“Contacting your local lawmaker makes a big difference — reach out and ask them to kill these bills,” recommends Ms. Samples. “The good news is, Floridians have their eyes open now. When we issued a ‘bad bill alert,’ we had a lot of response.”
“The governor’s executive order provides a useful yardstick that we can measure the session by,” Ms. Samples said. “At the end of 60 days, we’re going to see what we end up with.”
The advocates are calling for the governor to take action again.
“The governor’s executive order is terrific,” asserts Nicole Johnson, director of governmental relations for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. “DeSantis should be pushing back on these bills. And if they make it to his desk, he should veto these bills. They are completely inconsistent with what he has laid out as his environmental agenda.”
Part of that agenda, announced in the executive order, was a $614 million boost to Everglades restoration, a figure certain to have a huge and favorable influence on a restored water system stretching from near Orlando to Florida Bay — if the money is spent wisely, advocates say.
But Everglades restoration is no longer understood as a creature unto itself, the advocates say.
“You can’t sequester the Everglades and pretend it’s an isolated system not connected to everything else,” said Mr. Smart at VoteWater.org.
“And in the meantime, the legislative issues are all connected.”
Now, generally, so are advocacy groups, says Ms. Johnson.
“When a bad water bill comes up, there has always been a consistent outcry from the environmental community. But when bad growth management bills come up, you didn’t have that level of response from environmental advocates.”
What we now understand fully, she adds, “is that water quality is directly tied to growth management.
“Water quality is directly tied to growth management — everywhere. So that’s gotten groups of both land and water advocates to sound the alarm” when bills that could threaten both environmentally sensitive lands or clean water are proposed in a legislative session.
Cost
One thing Floridians will also end up with over time is extraordinarily high cost, says Vivian Young, communications director at 1000 Friends of Florida.
The high cost of playing catch-up when sprawl infrastructure isn’t paid for by development impact fees or leaders ignore its real long-term maintenance needs puts undue burdens on taxpayers for roads, schools, parks, sewage treatment and public safety. They’ll also end up paying to restore damaged lands and polluted waters they didn’t create with significantly higher taxes, over time.
There are other costs, said Ms. Young.
“Legislation this session would promote sprawling development patterns, and make local government approve new development even if it couldn’t provide the needed infrastructure, and more.”
Writes Ms. Young, in a 1000 Friends presentation: “Legislation should focus on planning as a tool to assess the true revenue and costs of new development and redevelopment to guide local governments to make sound financial decisions.”
But it’s not happening in Florida, so far, where legislators this session seem to be focused elsewhere. ¦
