Background:
In the final days of the 2025 Legislative Session harmful provisions were added to SB 180 – Emergencies, which are effectively freezing local planning in Florida. Sections 18 and 28 strip counties and municipalities of their ability to strengthen or update local land-use and environmental protections, including lighting ordinances essential for sea turtle nesting, following hurricanes or other emergencies. These sections have already been used to prevent counties like Brevard and Orange from adopting or enforcing stronger coastal management and conservation measures. STC has joined more than 40 organizations across the State to urge the Legislature to repeal Sections 18 and 28 of SB 180 during the 2026 Session.
Bill summary:
Section 18 relates to future hurricanes and prohibits counties (and the municipalities within them) even partially within 100 miles of a hurricane’s track from implementing any more “restrictive or burdensome” comprehensive plan or land development policies, regulations or procedures, for one year after landfall. What this actually means in practice, is local governments will be prevented from enacting stronger environmental protections for threatened species, like marine turtles, for a full year after landfall in hurricane affected areas.
Section 28 of SB 180 effectively halts any land use planning efforts for three years, and applies statewide, retroactive to August 1, 2024. At a time when Florida’s population is rapidly increasing and development pressure along the coast is intensifying, pausing land use planning for three years prevents communities from proactively protecting critical habitats, including nesting beaches for marine turtles and other vital species to Florida’s ecosystems.
Citing SB 180, the State has already denied approval for various land planning efforts in Orange County, and more recently, Brevard County. In October Brevard County’s comprehensive plan amendment was declared “null and void” by Florida Commerce because it was perceived as being more “restrictive or burdensome.” Brevard County’s amendment dealing with the establishment of the Brevard Barrier Island Area as an Area of Critical State Concern – which was required as a result of HB 1489, a law that was unanimously passed by the Legislature in 2023 – was also declared null and void. Without the proposed stronger protections found in this amendment, Brevard County’s natural resources are at risk.
In addition to major comprehensive plan amendments, SB 180 could also impact local bans on fertilizer, sea turtle lighting ordinance updates, septic-to-sewer grants, and other local measures that aim to improve an area’s natural resources.
These provisions did not receive the scrutiny of committee debate or public input in the Senate. Senators did not have the opportunity to fully understand their sweeping consequences before the bill came to a vote. Now that those consequences are clear, the Legislature has the responsibility to correct these missteps.
