Last year, the state legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 180, a bill that was aimed primarily at emergency response and hurricane recovery.
However, there were some included provisions (sections 18 and 28) that largely slipped under the radar. Both provisions introduced a chokehold on local government’s broader ability to implement any changes that could be considered “more restrictive or burdensome” to their comprehensive plans and land development codes, even in cases unrelated to building hurricane resilience or rebuilding post-storm. You can read more about that here.
There are multiple bills that have been introduced during the current, ongoing legislative session, aimed at fixing some of the problems introduced by SB 180, including the aforementioned damaging sections. However, the most promising is Senate Bill (SB) 840.
While not perfect, SB 840 introduces some positive changes to SB 180’s provisions. These include:
- Narrowing the scope of SB 180’s language to be more specific to hurricane recovery applications
- Removing the especially damaging and undefined “more restrictive or burdensome” phrasing from SB 180
- Redefining an “impacted local government” as listed within the federal register and within 50, rather than the original 100 miles, of a declared storm track
- Restoring home rule and the ability of local governments to forge ahead with the comprehensive planning and adoption process more generally, including building resilience, even if there are some restrictions on enforcement directly following storms
This bill has currently passed through the Senate, and we thank everyone who took action during this process. The bill is now being transferred to the House for its consideration.
The House has so far not introduced a companion bill to SB 840. However, they could decide to take up SB 840 and create a pathway for it to be passed within the House.
Please join us in urging your House representative to support the successful adoption of SB 840.