FL Local Govs Attempt To Defend Against Rising Seas & Bad Weather, Receive Threats, Lawsuits From Desantis In Return
Manatee County’s commissioners didn’t expect to be threatened with removal from office for considering two measures meant to enhance disaster resilience in this fast-growing county on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The measures, both amendments to the county’s comprehensive plan, were widely supported in the sizable county that stretches south from Tampa and east from the Gulf of Mexico, encompassing beachy barrier islands and bucolic inland communities. One of the measures was intended to protect the county’s wetlands and guard against future flooding by prohibiting development within 50 feet of the marshes. The other would control sprawl by addressing a loophole that allowed development east of the county’s long-established urban boundary line. Just last year, the county weathered three hurricanes: Debby, Helene and Milton. The measures had been in the works for a long time. But this summer the commissioners learned they suddenly were in violation of a new state law that took effect July 1, SB 180. Now the commissioners were being advised they could be removed from office for moving ahead with the amendments. An official in the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, sent letters that also threatened to withhold funding from the county.
Meanwhile, local developers already had filed suit over a separate commission action to raise impact fees, which developers pay toward local infrastructure improvements. The mounting legal and political pressures compelled the commissioners during an August meeting to put the comprehensive plan amendments on hold instead of approving them as they’d intended. “It’s incredibly difficult and frustrating because we want people to live here, but we want people to live here safely, and you’re tying our hands. You’re basically saying you all but have to allow for unlimited growth and development,” Commission Chairman George Kruse told Inside Climate News. “They’re not letting me say, ‘OK, let’s learn from our mistakes.’”
Manatee County is among 25 local governments from across the state that have now joined to sue the DeSantis administration over SB 180, which the governor signed into law in June. The measure was billed by supporters during the spring legislative session as a means of helping hurricane-stricken communities recover by temporarily easing building rules. But a last-minute amendment goes further, the lawsuit argues, prohibiting local governments from enacting land development policies that are “more restrictive or burdensome.”
EDIT
The law applies to counties listed in a federal disaster declaration that come at least partially within 100 miles of a storm’s path, and also to every municipality within those counties even when the municipalities did not sustain hurricane damage. The law prohibits the local governments from enacting construction or redevelopment moratoriums and prevents more restrictive or burdensome amendments to their comprehensive plans or development rules. The legislation also bans more restrictive or burdensome procedures when it comes to obtaining development permits, and it restricts changes to land development policies after future storms.
EDIT
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08102025/florida-hurricane-disaster-policies/
= new reply since forum marked as read
