TALLAHASSEE — Earlier this week, Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse joined two other elected officials to discuss the fading opportunity for state lawmakers to pass a legislative fix to SB 180. The officials spoke during a Zoom press conference organized by 1000 Friends of Florida that included representatives from the City of Deltona and Orange County.
Signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June, SB 180 is a broad emergency management bill that has limited local governments’ ability to enact new or updated development codes and regulations. The legislation was intended, in part, to ensure that residents recovering from hurricane-related damage would not be subject to newly adopted local ordinances imposing stricter requirements. However, its language regarding “more restrictive or burdensome” rules has been applied to a wider range of development applications, including new construction, not just storm-damaged properties.
The provisions of the law apply retroactively, restricting local land-use, development, and zoning regulations from August 1, 2024—before the law was passed—and remain in effect through at least October 1, 2027.
1000 Friends of Florida, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on smart-growth policy, organized Wednesday’s press conference, bringing together Orange County Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, Deltona City Commissioner Dori Howington, and Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse, along with 1000 Friends Policy and Planning Director Kim Dinkins and land use attorney Richard Grosso. The commissioners joined the discussion to highlight how SB180 has negatively impacted their communities and smart growth efforts, and the need to fix the bill’s broad language.
Attorney Grosso opened the discussion, making the case for why it was so important for lawmakers to fix SB 180. “People are fed up with the overdevelopment in this state. This law only makes that worse,” Grosso said.
He continued, “By allowing developers to pick and choose the things they’d like to see changed in local government comprehensive plans, we have left local governments pretty powerless to protect their citizens when it comes to flooding, pollution, hurricane impacts, affordable housing, and that’s a huge problem with this bill, and it needs to be fixed.”
Kruse, who traveled to Tallahassee in January to testify in favor of Senate Bill 840, a bill that appeared to be the best option for a fix to the problematic SB 180, said on Wednesday that the Senate had done its job in advancing the measure; now, the House needed to do the same.
SB 840 passed the Senate unanimously (38-0) on February 19 and was sent to the House, but lawmakers there have yet to advance a bill that mirrors the Senate's version—and Kruse and other officials are urging action as the legislative session is just weeks away from wrapping up.
SB 180’s language has been used to legally undermine Manatee County Commissioners’ efforts to enact policies in the best interest of the communities and public they represent, including by blocking the reinstatement of local wetland protections, raising impact fees, the repeal of 2.1.2.8, increasing protections for the Myakka River, and the commission’s effort to update the county’s comprehensive plan.
“It’s unfortunate that the Senate did its job, and the House is holding it back,” Kruse said. “The House is up for election every two years, and I’m sure the rank and file are dying to vote for this thing, because they’re all getting skewered for voting for Senate Bill 180. They all promised it was a mistake, and they would fix it, and now they have an opportunity to fix it, and whoever it is and the powers that be are preventing this right now from happening.”
Manatee County officials, along with local officials in 24 other cities and counties, including Orange County and the City of Deltona, initially filed a class-action lawsuit in September 2025, challenging SB 180 for unlawfully restricting home-rule authority. But, as Kruse explained during the press conference, more local governments might have also joined the action, except they were encouraged to hold off as a “fix to the measure” was coming during this legislative session.
“Now we’re kind of having the rug pulled out from under us,” explained Kruse.
According to Friends of Florida’s Policy and Planning Director, Kim Dinkins, at least 10 communities—beyond the ones her organization represents—have received notice from the Florida Department of Commerce that their comprehensive plans are null, even if only a portion of the entire amendment that was submitted was policies that could be considered more restrictive or burdensome under SB 180.
Commissioner Semrad of Orange County echoed the need for a fix to SB 180, citing how the measure had restricted Orange County’s Commission from implementing its newly commissioned comprehensive plan—a roughly $5 million investment—and advancing policies related to affordable housing, flood management, and even bicycle and pedestrian walk lanes. She called on constituents to “be attentive.”
“The state of Florida is under attack by irresponsible growth management that is being facilitated by developers and politicians who have sold out to those developers,” said Semrad.
She continued, “Tallahassee, unfortunately, has become contaminated with developers who decide that what is more burdensome and restrictive is based on preference, which is their bottom line and their profits. That’s what they’re concerned about, making a profit off the back of Orange County and all of the other counties across the state of Florida that are trying to develop in a sustainable fashion, so that future generations still have a Florida that is worth living in.”
Manatee County and Orange County remain as plaintiffs with the coalition of local governments that filed the legal action currently pending in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit in Leon County. The City of Deltona was also initially a part of the suit, but has since withdrawn as a plaintiff, an action Deltona City Commissioner Dori Howington called unfortunate.
Howington said that despite the hardships that SB 180 has brought upon her local government and community, including a lawsuit that ended in a costly settlement, Deltona residents are still asking their elected officials to advance resiliency projects, update the land development code, address flooding, and bring forward other initiatives that she says are blocked by SB 180.
“Deltona's had kind of an interesting uphill battle with SB 180, in that we were one of the first cities to be sued. Within a matter of about 24 hours after the governor signed the bill, we were sued,” described Howington. “Unfortunately, as of today, we had to settle that lawsuit because about two weeks ago… we were forced to settle. That settlement cost our residents over $3 million.”
Howington explained that after her board initially voted to join the class action coalition lawsuit, a seat on the city’s commission changed, and the newly seated board flipped on its earlier vote, voting to exit the SB 180 lawsuit.
“The four commissioners who voted to exit the lawsuit said, at the time, that they wanted to work with our state legislators to come up with a fix,” she detailed. “We were told there would be a fix, that they recognized the unintended consequences, and that there would be corrections made… We need those leaders to step forward and keep their word.”
“It is an election year,” Howington added, “and people need to remember this.”
The initial lawsuit filed in September by a coalition of 25 cities and counties has now been consolidated with a second lawsuit filed shortly after by 1,000 Friends of Florida and Orange County resident Rachel Hildebrand. While the cases are now joined, the parties retain their separate legal teams, which are reportedly working in tandem.
A Leon County circuit judge denied a preliminary injunction in the case in late December, but also denied a motion to dismiss, allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
Local governments participating in the lawsuit have characterized SB 840 as a substantive adjustment to the existing law, but if a fix to SB 180 is to come this legislative session, as state lawmakers have indicated, officials urged during Wednesday’s press conference that the window to act is quickly closing.
With the legislative session scheduled to end on Friday, March 13, House members must either take up SB 840 or advance their own legislation. If no measure passes, the provisions of SB 180 remain as written, leaving local governments under the same legal pressures and restraints as before, likely for at least another year.
Click here to replay the 1000 Friends of Florida Feb. 25 Zoom press conference in full.
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lib224
Sad that Republicans are so owned by big money.
Sunday, March 1 Report this