Amendment to Emergency Management Bill Seeks to Eliminate More Home Rule on Development

For most of the 2025 Florida legislative session, it seemed as if this year would not be as bad as previous sessions regarding attacks on home rule and the ability of communities to enact rules to facilitate sustainable growth. The State Park Preservation Act was passed, and efforts to eliminate Regional Planning Councils and Community Redevelopment Agencies failed. However, a last-minute amendment to an emergency management bill will extend familiar prohibitions on strengthening local planning regulations.

SB 180 is the comprehensive emergency management bill for this session. Much of the bill is positive policies that help the state plan for and respond to devastating storms ahead of hurricane season. However, the amendment, which was put forth by Representative Fiona McFarland (R-Sarasota), would prohibit counties and municipalities that were listed in the Federal Disaster Declarations for hurricanes Debby, Milton, or Helene from enacting construction moratoriums on redeveloping storm-damaged properties or more "restrictive or burdensome" comprehensive plan amendments, land development regulations or procedures related to development approvals from August 1, 2024 through October 1, 2027.

Every county in Florida was included in at least one of these designations in 2024, which means the prohibitions would apply statewide. The bill makes a prior law applicable to previous hurricanes that applied to any local governments located entirely or partially within 100 miles of a storm’s track permanent. It would automatically ban any more restrictive or burdensome local planning in those communities for at least a year afterward.

These limitations would make it harder to facilitate disaster recovery, as they prevent communities from adopting policies that protect lives and property after the lessons learned from a significant storm event. It could also negatively impact the environment and quality of life, while leading to higher property insurance costs. "Restrictive or burdensome" is not defined in the statute, but as Manatee County residents recently learned, state agencies are broadly interpreting the terms. 

SB 180 would create a basis for developers to sue on those grounds. Counties and municipalities facing a suit would either have to withdraw the amendment to a plan or regulation or go to court and risk paying the developer's legal costs. SB 180 represents a radical departure from how Florida has approached community planning and home rule. The not-for-profit smart growth advocacy organization 1000 Friends of Florida recommends that citizens contact their legislators and urge them to fix the "fatal flaw in SB 180" before it is sent to Governor DeSantis.