Some of the new state laws taking effect Tuesday reflect missed opportunities — and some wins — for Florida’s environment from this year’s legislative session, according to advocates. The session, which included 45 days of overtime, yielded a state budget with “more setbacks than successes for land conservation,” according to a recent email from 1000 Friends of Florida, a smart growth planning advocacy nonprofit.
This year, state lawmakers approved $18 million for the state’s primary conservation land acquisition program, Florida Forever, falling short of the $100 million annual amount promised just two years ago. That recurring funding commitment is outlined by a law passed during the 2023 legislative session.
Lawmakers did allocate significantly more funding, $250 million, to the state’s Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. That program protects agricultural lands from development through conservation easements signed with landowners who may or may not decide to continue farming on or “working” the land, depending on the terms of the easement.
“[The program] pays farmers for their development rights, so they can continue to farm, and so their land does not get turned into rooftops and asphalt,” said 1000 Friends of Florida President Paul Owens. “That's a good thing … However, there's plenty of property in Florida that's worthy of long-term protection that is not agricultural land.”
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Agricultural lands make up about half of the 8 million acres of unprotected land falling within the Florida Wildlife Corridor, according to a report the nonprofit jointly published last year with the University of Florida’s Center for Landscape Conservation Planning. While that statistic certainly illustrates the importance of protecting Florida farmland, Owens said, it doesn’t negate the need to also protect other types of natural land in the state.
“I see these two programs [Florida Forever and the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program] working in concert, complementing each other. They don’t compete with each other,” Owens said. “Funding for one should not detract from funding for the other. They are both part of the long-term solution to land conservation and protection in Florida.”
Each agreement established through Florida’s Rural and Family Lands Protection Program includes different terms, based on the specific property and landowner. But generally, the easements hand over development rights to the state, while allowing for the landowner to continue using the land under certain conditions.
Although Florida Forever also pays for development rights in some cases, Owens said, it has flexibility the state’s Rural and Family Lands Protection Program doesn’t: to buy land outright, preventing it from being developed in the future.
In another big environmental “miss” this year, Owens said, lawmakers approved a broad emergency management bill that threatens to tie the hands of local government planners. Owens’s nonprofit has described the law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis Friday as a “sneak attack on local planning powers.”
Senate Bill 180 aims to make it easier for Florida communities to rebuild quickly following a hurricane, a sentiment Owens said he appreciates — in theory. The law blocks local governments from proposing or adopting building moratoriums for one year after a designated hurricane makes landfall in that county or municipality.
“The bill is portrayed as a measure to help Floridians rebuild their lives after hurricanes. And it's hard to be opposed to that concept, of course,” Owens said. “But what it means in practice is that there is going to be a lot of development in places that are vulnerable to storms that may not be appropriate for development.”
The law also prohibits local governments from making any “more restrictive or burdensome” changes to their comprehensive plan or land development regulations, following hurricanes.
“This means that communities won't be able to make changes to make them more resilient to future hurricanes. They'll just have to go back to business as usual,” Owens said. “If they attempt to make any of those changes, they'll be vulnerable to lawsuits from developers that challenge those changes.”
Ultimately, the new law freezes “meaningful land use planning” in Florida communities affected by hurricanes, Owens said.
“This is a danger to public safety,” Owens said. “This is just gonna put, in the future, more lives, property and public dollars in danger.”
Owens noted several other missed opportunities from this year’s legislative session, including a lack of funding for both the Florida Communities Trust, which helps local communities acquire conservation land, and the Florida Recreational Development Assistance Program, which provides grant funding for communities to expand outdoor recreation.
But even amid the disappointments of this year’s legislative session, lawmakers also scored several major wins for Florida’s environment that are well worth celebrating, Owens said.
A bill that would have abolished regional planning councils didn’t advance to become law. Neither did a controversial bill that would’ve removed rural boundary protections enacted by local governments after 2011, including those approved by Orange County voters last year.
One huge win, Owens said, is Florida’s new State Park Preservation Act. Lawmakers initially proposed it late last year, following widespread pushback to the state’s leaked plans to develop amenities like golf courses and resort-style lodges in Florida state parks. DeSantis disavowed those plans once they were brought to light.
As originally proposed, the law left room for loopholes potentially still allowing for such amenities to be developed in state parks. But following coordinated advocacy efforts from 1000 Friends and other groups, lawmakers ultimately strengthened the bill’s language, making it more protective of state parks in its final form.
For Owens, the new state parks law is proof of Floridians’ power to enact real, tangible change.
“Floridians organized all over the state. There was a bipartisan opposition to that concept,” Owens said. “It tells me that if Floridians can be organized for other goals, there's no limit to what can be accomplished. Legislators will listen to that kind of outcry and that kind of united opposition.”
