Legislature wants to make it impossible for local governments to build back better after hurricanes
Hello, is this the 911 operator? I need to report someone who's a danger to themselves and others. It's the Florida Legislature.
No, operator, this is not a joke! Didn't you hear what they did? After one of Florida's worst hurricane seasons in years, they passed a bill to block local governments from trying to build back better.
And they did it right before the start of another hurricane season, one that's predicted to be above normal, just like last year. No, I can't tell you why it's supposed to be so bad. It involves climate change, and the governor doesn't want us to talk about that.
Even if climate change wasn't heating up the Gulf of Whatchamacallit to a temperature that you're more accustomed to seeing in an oven, this hurricane season seems especially fraught with peril because of the chaos in Washington.
The tumult and the shouting in D.C. are interfering with disaster aid and preparation. Nothing increases everyone's pre-storm jitters like hearing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is not ready for the season.
I know Gov. Ron DeSantis has been trying to convince everyone that Florida doesn't really need FEMA, even though it stepped up to hand over $1 billion to aid homeowners and renters last year.
But this is the guy who can't even get members of his own party to approve a new state budget. That means we could be facing a state government shutdown on July 1, shortly after the start of hurricane season on June 1.
So, given the unreliability of FEMA, the prediction of another horrible hurricane season, and this ill-considered bill that passed Tallahassee with flying colors, can you see why I'm worried that the Legislature wants to kill us?
I mean, does it sound to you like they're paying attention to anyone's safety, including their own?
Operator, the bill they passed, the one that puts everyone in peril, is Senate Bill 180. That's a pretty good description of it, too, because it's 180 degrees from what would have been much safer for all concerned.
The specific part of the bill that's got me and a lot of other people worried would prevent any local government in Florida from adopting anything for its growth regulations after a hurricane that could be deemed too 'restrictive or burdensome' to developers.
'One part of the bill prevents cities and counties listed in federal disaster declarations for Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton — a majority of the state — from adopting tougher development rules until October 2027. The ban is retroactive to August 2024, also threatening to undo any recent rule changes,' the Miami Herald reported last week.
And there's no real end-date for what it does, either. We could be stuck with this restriction forever.
'Another part of the bill calls for a similar one-year ban anytime a local government is listed in a federal disaster declaration and lies within 100 miles of a hurricane's path,' the Herald said. 'It could renew each time a storm strikes Florida's coast, a regular occurrence for the storm-plagued state.'
'These are decisions that need to be made by local governments locally, not by people in Tallahassee,' Kim Dinkins of the smart growth group 1000 Friends of Florida told me. 'Every time a storm comes through, we learn more about how to deal with them.'
Worse, she pointed out, the bill will interfere with the ability of cities and counties to take advantage of money from the feds and the state for converting septic tanks to sewers and fixing drainage problems. If those fixes require ordinance changes that affect development, such as requiring new homes to connect to the sewer lines, this bill won't allow it.
How did we get here? Bear in mind that we're a state surrounded on three sides by water, so we're especially vulnerable to a rising sea level. Yet our state has seen rampant overdevelopment in flood-prone spots in recent years.
Our blatantly pro-development legal and political structure has turned the state into a hotbed of poorly planned projects that are constantly risking inundation. Developers don't want that to change.
Here's the truly alarming thing, operator: This idiotic bill was sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, whose own home flooded during Hurricane Helene.
He's a storm victim himself, yet he's OK with blocking cities and counties from putting in place any additional protections for future storm victims. DiCeglie is in the trash-hauling business, so maybe that's why he pushed this particular piece of garbage.
Despite the obvious life-threatening flaws in this bill, our fine Legislature passed it by nearly a unanimous vote in both houses. I swear, it's as if we're being governed by the writers of the TV show 'Seinfeld: 'No hugging and no learning!'
And operator, did I mention that this isn't the first time they've done this kind of thing?
The first time this happened was in early 2023, a few months after Hurricane Ian.
Ian, you may recall, clobbered the Southwest Florida coast and killed 149 people. 'Scores drowned as they fled on foot, while in their cars or after seawater swallowed their homes,' NBC News reported. 'Ian was one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit the U.S. in the past 20 years.'
The high body count showed that the development pattern in that area had flaws. It would have been great if Lee County had done something to adjust its building regulations in response.
But Lee couldn't.
When the Legislature met in special session the following February, one of Lee County's own, Sen. Jonathan Martin of Fort Myers, sponsored a bill that said local officials in the area hit by Ian could not impose any new development rules deemed 'more restrictive or burdensome' than what was already on the books.
Marttin's bill passed the Legislature and was signed into law by DeSantis. It covered a 100 square mile radius affected by Ian. Also, it was set to expire in 2024. That was strike one.
Months later, the Big Bend area was smashed by powerful Hurricane Idalia. The casualty count wasn't as high, but the property damage was really bad.
During a special session in November 2023, a new bill, sponsored by Rep. Jason Shoaf of Port St. Joe, extended the ban on any commonsense regulation changes on development through 2026.
Worse, it expanded the area affected to list 10 specific counties that had to wear the Legislature's handcuffs: Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Lee, Manatee, and Sarasota.
DeSantis signed that one into law as well. Call that strike two.
Then came this year's session and SB 180. The guv hasn't put pen to paper on this one, so we can't call it strike three — yet.
Some groups, such as Volusia and Miami-Dade counties, are urging him to veto it.
The bill will 'not only limit our ability to responsibly manage development, flooding, and ensure public safety … but also could expose local governments to attorney's fees and costly litigation if local government regulations, enacted in good faith, are challenged,' Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote to the governor this week.
'This legislation prevents local governments from enacting changes that may help our citizens in future storm events,' the Volusia County Council wrote to him in its own veto letter.
But I doubt DeSantis will listen to them, because this bill benefits developers. Our governor loves developers even more than he loves eating pudding while wearing his white go-go boots.
Operator, I asked around about who was behind this bill. The word in Tallahassee is that its major proponent is a big-time developer in Manatee County named Pat Neal.
Neal is a former legislator who's built 25,000 homes in Florida, most of them in Manatee and Sarasota counties. He's now a billionaire, according to Forbes magazine, but compares himself a hungry seagull — and not the touchy-feely Jonathan Livingston kind.
'I have the right to swoop down on any chicken bone,' he told the magazine proudly. That's not a motto you'd hear from someone who's much concerned about the fate of his fellow man.
Thus, even though the Florida housing market seems to be headed for another crash with all the rapidity of a competitor in a demolition derby, Neal plans to keep building more and more homes. It's what he's been doing since the '70s, and as the '70s soul duo McFadden & Whitehead would say, 'Ain't no stopping him now.'
However, the Manatee County Commission, alarmed by flooding from last year's hurricanes, has proposed a development moratorium while they figure out how to build subdivisions and other projects that will drain better.
Neal has been one of the more vocal opponents of a development moratorium, and his opinion does carry a lot of weight. He's a guy for whom public officials tend to do favors.
For instance, 10 years ago I watched in open-mouthed wonder as the members of the Southwest Florida Water Management District board did Neal a huge favor. They did so despite the fact that it went against a judge's ruling and they did it over the strong objections of environmental activists.
Now that the Legislature has said no local government can pass any 'burdensome' post-storm regulations, the Manatee moratorium has been murdered in its crib. All you little Floridians must kneel to Neal and his needs! Give him all your chicken bones!
I tried reaching Neal to ask him about this, but he didn't respond. Perhaps he was too busy squelching other good ideas for coping with the increasing intensity of Florida's hurricanes.
If this bill becomes law, all the folks buying Neal-built homes will be just as much at risk of flooding as they were last year and the years before that, too.
But more importantly, Neal will still make money and spend his spare time contemplating his legacy.
'We want to make sure that what we leave behind is authentic and good,' he told Forbes. I hope someone will point out to him that homes he considers 'authentic and good' won't stay that way if they turn soggy with the next big storm surge and fill up with mold.
The larger problem, dear operator, is that Manatee County was far from the only place in hurricane-ravaged Florida where officials were talking about imposing new building regulations.
Just down the road from Manatee, over in Polk County, the county commissioners were considering new stormwater requirements for developments in stressed basins, as well as some other changes.
Not anymore.
Here was the headline in the Lakeland Ledger: 'Polk County delays vote on roosters, chicken coops and development issues over pending state bill.'
The chicken coop line is no yolk (sorry!). Polk commissioners had been considering new restrictions on where homeowners can keep their chickens.
But because DiCeglie's bill passed, it's Polk County that's cooped up with its existing regulations. Polk's commissioners voted to hold off taking any action until they see what DeSantis will do.
But that's not as big an impact as what's happening in New Smyrna Beach.
Back in 2022, after Ian passed through, the town of New Smyrna Beach first proposed a moratorium on growth. In those days, you almost never heard the M-word in Florida. But the folks in New Smyrna Beach were desperate.
During Ian's onslaught, the city experienced 'close to 21 inches of rain and 4 feet of storm surge in some areas,' the Daytona Beach News Journal reported. 'County and city first responders rescued about 215 individuals as a result of the flooding, while over 850 homes suffered catastrophic damage to their properties.'
That was followed in 2023 by two non-hurricane storms that caused serious street flooding in a section of town called Venetian Bay. Major roads were impassable for days on end. Residents demanded the city do something.
That led to a moratorium on building permits pending work on fixing the drainage system. The city also passed new stormwater regulations in February. But all that will go away if DeSantis signs SB 180.
As a result, city officials have written to the governor urging him to veto the bill, and they're encouraging all of New Smyrna's 32,000 residents to do the same. I sure hope they fill up DeSantis' inbox with urgent pleas for him to pay attention to this issue.
So, tell me, operator, can you help us all out? Send over some paramedics or even some cops to handle these self-destructive lawmakers? Help them to recover their sense of who they're supposed to serve?
Because if not, all of us residents are likely to need some really urgent aid around the time the first big storm hits.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
FEMA begins preliminary damage assessments in Chicago after July floods
Some Chicago homeowners are still dealing the aftermath of the torrential rain that caused flooding at the end of July. It's why the Federal Emergency Management Agency joined state, county, and city officials this week to go door-to-door in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood to survey the damage in one of the areas hit hardest by the storms. Weeks later, some in Garfield Ridge were still dealing with cleanup from the flooding, so city, county, state, and federal partners began performing a preliminary damage assessment on Wednesday to get a sampling of the damage. "We're out on the street today," Illinois Emergency Management Agency recovery division chief Greg Nimmo. "We're giving it everything we've got." The preliminary damage assessment is the first step of a flood damage review before a state and local review that goes to the governor's office before making a formal request for federal disaster recovery assistance from the White House; all following the major storms that soaked Chicago for three consecutive days in late July. "This is a necessary and preliminary step in order for the state to request federal assistance," said FEMA public affairs specialist Kim Keblish. "FEMA's mission is helping people before, during, and after disasters; and that's exactly what we're doing today." Tony Biliskov said, in 52 years living in Garfield Ridge, "we learned don't put anything on the basement floor." Biliskov and many others in Garfield Ridge suffered water damage in their homes, after water backed up into their basements from the city's overloaded sewer system. "I had maybe about four inches of water in the basement," Biliskov said. It's a problem he's all too familiar with. "We used to get flooding all the time," he said. Earlier this week, the city rolled out a new program installing 50 special flood sensors across the city to provide real-time alerts of flash flooding. Experts have said for years that climate change is bringing more extreme weather and more rain. With some Chicago neighborhoods bearing the brunt of the rainfall totals, flooding impacts parts of the city differently. It's one reason the damage survey work is so important. "This is a process. You know it's not a 'We come to your door and, by golly, you're going get a check tomorrow' kind of thing," Nimmo said. The damage survey continues through Sunday.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Judge strikes down key parts of Florida law that led to removal of books from school libraries
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has struck down key parts of a Florida law that helped parents get books they found objectionable removed from public school libraries and classrooms. It is a victory for publishers and authors who had sued after their books were removed. U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza in Orlando said in Wednesday's ruling that the statute's prohibition on material that described sexual conduct was overbroad. Mendoza, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, also said that the state's interpretation of the 2023 law was unconstitutional. Among the books that had been removed from central Florida schools were classics like Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale,' Richard Wright's 'Native Son' and Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five.' 'Historically, librarians curate their collections based on their sound discretion not based on decrees from on high,' the judge said. 'There is also evidence that the statute has swept up more non-obscene books than just the ones referenced here." After the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed the law, school officials worried that any sexual content was questionable, a belief that was enforced by new state training that urged librarians to err on the side of caution. Last year, Florida led the nation with 4,500 removals of school books. Under the judge's ruling, schools should revert back to a U.S. Supreme Court precedent in which the test is whether an average person would find the work prurient as a whole; whether it depicts sexual content in an offensive way; and whether the work lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value. The lawsuit was brought by some of the nation's largest book publishers and some of the authors whose books had been removed from central Florida school libraries, as well as the parents of schoolchildren who tried to access books that were removed. The author plaintiffs included Angie Thomas, author of 'The Hate U Give"; Jodi Picoult, author of 'My Sister's Keeper"; John Green, author of 'The Fault in Our Stars"; and Julia Alvarez, author of 'How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.' The publisher plaintiffs included Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing and Simon and Schuster.
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Florida to open second immigration detention facility, 'Deportation Depot'
'This is a priority for the people of our state; it's a priority for the people of this country,' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. Florida will open a second immigration detention, processing and deportation facility, dubbed "Deportation Depot" by Gov. Ron DeSantis, in about two weeks. The new site, at the Baker Correctional Institution near Lake City in the northeast part of the state, will house more than 1,300 people, the governor and other state officials announced at an Aug. 14 news conference. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will use the nearby Lake City Gateway Airport to transport immigrants. "This is a priority for the people of our state; it's a priority for the people of this country," DeSantis said. The state had intended to use the Florida National Guard's nearby Camp Blanding as its second immigrant detention facility, but DeSantis said the Baker Correctional Institution would be more economical, costing about $6 million to get it "up and running." The facility was originally closed because of a staffing shortage within the Florida Department of Corrections, but DeSantis said the Florida National Guard will staff the center. (Baker Correctional Institution is not the same as the Baker County Detention Center, which is already an ICE detention facility.) DeSantis said using Baker Correctional Institution, or Baker CI, would require "a lot less standing up than we would do at Blanding and far less than we had to do at Alligator Alcatraz." The state has poured money into the site in the Everglades, formally known as the South Florida Detention Facility, which opened July 1. Less than a month in, state contracts showed the facility cost more than $250 million to set up and it is expected to cost $450 million per year. DeSantis: Feds will reimburse state for immigration enforcement costs DeSantis has said the federal government will reimburse the state for its immigration enforcement. Kevin Guthrie, head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said the agency has been working with the feds for the past three months to receive a $605 million grant. The feds have also recently infused $170 billion for immigration and border-related activities for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in what's known as the Trump administration's "One Big Beautiful Bill," a massive tax and spending law. State Immigration Enforcement Council Director Larry Keefe criticized the "weaponized judiciary with the leftist lawyers" and the media "distorting facts" for "peripheral flank attacks," saying they're trying to obstruct the state's immigration detention efforts. Friends of the Everglades, a conservation group, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida are suing the state, alleging the detention facility in Big Cypress National Preserve "poses serious threats to the sensitive Everglades ecosystem, endangered species, clean water and dark night skies." U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams issued a temporary restraining order to halt any further construction of the South Florida Detention Facility and said she will issue a decision before the order expires on Aug. 21. Florida officials have said that once capacity at the South Florida Detention Facility was reached, they would look at opening another facility at Camp Blanding, a training center for the Florida National Guard in Clay County. Currently, there are 1,000 people detained at the South Florida Detention Facility, and there's capacity to hold 2,000. DeSantis said the federal government is "ramping up" removal flights from the South Florida facility. While the state operates the facility, the removal of undocumented immigrants is under federal jurisdiction. But DeSantis also said opening the South Florida Detention Facility has caused an increase of immigrants taking the state's "Voluntary Departure" option. The program is a collaboration between U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the state, where Florida buys commercial flights for migrants as an alternative to detention. The state has not disclosed whether taxpayer dollars are being used to buy the tickets, how many tickets have been bought so far this year and to which countries these flights were headed to. Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@
