Florida Lawmakers to Reconsider 2024 Law Blocking Local Resilience Efforts

Three proposed Florida bills would alter 2024’s controversial SB 180, a law designed to help communities rebuild and recover after disasters that critics say prevent local jurisdictions from enacting new development standards and building codes needed to protect communities from flooding and hurricane damage.

As Amy Green explains in Inside Climate News, the law sparked two lawsuits that say it prevents cities from making needed adjustments to land use regulations in a state where unpredictable extreme weather is a constant concern. “The law prohibits local governments from enacting any land development policies that could be considered to be ‘more restrictive or burdensome’” — including building codes aimed at reducing flood risk and strengthening stormwater management. 

The proposed bills would narrow the law’s scope to make it apply only to communities most threatened by hurricanes and make other tweaks to revise the most controversial aspects of the law.