Legislature wants to make it impossible for local governments to build back better after hurricanes

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7 days ago

A BMW lies submerged during flooding in New Smyrna Beach caused by Hurricane Ian, via New Smyrna Beach official Facebook page
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.
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