New Florida Law Bars Communities From Planning for Climate, Disaster Resilience

A Florida state law that took effect in July bars local jurisdictions from enacting “restrictive or burdensome” land development policies, including those aimed at boosting climate resilience and preventing future flooding and climate disasters.

As Amy Green explains in Inside Climate News, SB 180 was designed to ease building regulations to speed up recovery after hurricanes, but also prevents cities from creating new policies around development in flood-prone areas. According to Jamie Cole, the lead attorney in a lawsuit brought by local governments against the state, “it basically freezes all local planning and zoning regulations in place as they were on Aug. 1, 2024, until Oct. 1, 2027.”

Kim Dinkins, policy and planning director at 1000 Friends of Florida, says “the law threatens to upend local efforts at balancing climate impacts with rapid growth and development” and will lead to continued rebuilding in areas that are not viable. 

“The law applies to counties listed in a federal disaster declaration that come at least partially within 100 miles of a storm’s path, and also to every municipality within those counties even when the municipalities did not sustain hurricane damage.” It bars municipalities from enacting development moratoriums as well as adding amendments to their comprehensive plans. 

An analysis prepared for 1000 Friends of Florida calls the measure, which was supported by some of the state’s largest builders, “one of the most dangerous and ill-conceived pieces of planning-related legislation adopted in modern times in Florida.”