After three hurricanes battered Florida in 2024, state lawmakers approved legislation that supporters said would help communities recover. But the measure has had the much more far-reaching consequence of blocking local sustainability and resilience efforts.
The provisions of SB 180 that enhance growth and development in this booming state, which is uniquely vulnerable to more damaging storms, rising tides and flooding, are poised to be a top issue as the legislative session begins this week.
Three bills have been introduced to address the widespread concerns over the measure, which sparked two lawsuits after taking effect last July. The state moved to dismiss both complaints, and the cases, both filed in Leon County Circuit Court, have since been consolidated.
“Under the guise of helping people rebuild damaged structures, they did developers around the state a huge favor and basically froze in place all existing development standards in an area, in a state that has major problems that we need to address relative to sea level rise, environmental protections, habitat protections, water quality protections, affordable housing,” said Richard Grosso, an environmental attorney representing an advocacy group, 1000 Friends of Florida, in one of the lawsuits.
“Planning is supposed to be, has always been, an ongoing endeavor. You adjust your rules as you meet changing conditions and new challenges. And I don’t think anybody who is seriously knowledgeable about local land use planning in the state that would say our rules right now, they’re good, they’re adequate for all the future challenges Florida is facing.”
SB 180 goes to the heart of a dialogue that arises often in Florida after destructive hurricanes. On one hand, there is a widespread collective resolve to rebuild. But on the other, there is awareness of the inevitability of future storms and the prudence of rebuilding more sustainably. After Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992 as a Catego
