Orange County is working with Florida’s Department of Commerce to try and bring the county’s new comprehensive plan into compliance with a new state law, according to a press release shared by the county Tuesday afternoon.
The new law, Senate Bill 180, curbs local governments’ ability to control development. It blocks localities from adopting any development rules and procedures deemed “more restrictive or burdensome” than before, without defining exactly what “more restrictive or burdensome” means.
Orange County staff spent eight years and tens of thousands of hours working on the new Vision 2050 document that commissioners voted 5-2 to approve on June 3. But late last month, state officials sent the county a letter stating Vision 2050 isn’t compliant with Senate Bill 180.
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Now, the county is in talks with state officials to try and make Vision 2050 compliant, and so far those talks are reportedly going well. But at the same time, Orange County is now set to join other local governments in a class action lawsuit challenging the law, following commissioners’ Tuesday approval of a resolution to do so.
A spokeswoman declined to comment on how Orange County is juggling that balance, writing in an email that the county doesn’t typically comment on pending litigation.
"This new law is devastating"
District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad said Tuesday she hadn’t been briefed on the county’s intention to work with the state on revising Vision 2050, but that she doesn’t think that’s where the county should be directing its efforts. Senate Bill 180 is a piece of legislation that was “contaminated by developers,” Martinez Semrad said.
“It's the job of the local government to stand up and to fight against that, not to take a knee and to try to come into compliance with something that your board of county commissioners and mayors are actively pursuing a lawsuit against,” Martinez Semrad said.
A legal analysis commissioned by the smart growth planning advocacy group 1000 Friends of Florida says Senate Bill 180 essentially repeals Florida’s land-use planning laws.
“This new law is devastating to the ability of all local governments to make changes to their plans or codes needed to protect public safety, improve community resilience, or reduce property damage and public clean-up and recovery costs, or for any other issue,” reads that analysis by environmental lawyer Richard Grosso. “It is the opposite of what most land use and emergency preparedness and recovery professionals would believe is needed in Florida.”
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"More restrictive or burdensome"
So far, conversations between Orange County and the state have been “very open and collaborative,” according to the county’s director of planning, environmental services and development, Tanya Wilson.
“The good thing is that we have a good working relationship with the state over the years, and we have a tremendous amount of respect for the staff there, as they do for our own staff,” Wilson said. “They recognize the hard work that's gone into the process [of developing Vision 2050].”
In the July 28 letter sent to Orange County, state officials point to ten specific policies within Vision 2050 that are “more restrictive or burdensome” than the county’s existing comprehensive plan, violating the law. Four additional policies within Vision 2050 are “potentially more restrictive or burdensome” according to the letter, including one policy directing bicycle paths to be separated from roadways whenever possible.
But not all the policies cited by the state are new in Orange County. Some, like a wetlands buffer requirement for building in certain parts of the Wekiva River watershed, were adopted by the county as far back as 2000.
“Quite honestly, some of these policies were in the comprehensive plan before,” Wilson said. “They've been tweaked in some form or shape, but the intent and spirit of the policy language is still, in fact, the same as we had in the prior comprehensive plan version.”
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"Important enough to fight for"
Martinez Semrad and District 3 Commissioner Mayra Uribe were the two dissenting final votes on Vision 2050. Martinez Semrad didn’t like that the plan doesn’t mention Orange County’s voter-approved rural boundary, for one. Meanwhile, Uribe wanted to see Vision 2050 include more focus on infrastructure and transportation.
But despite not loving everything about the new comprehensive plan, both commissioners still say they don’t want the state intervening to block its implementation.
“[That] ultimately takes the control out of your local government,” Uribe said. “Local government home rule is the essence of what we do, and it's the essence of why people elect people locally.”
Meanwhile, “I thought that Vision 2050 had a long way to go. But I'm willing to stand up for what the decision of the board and the community was,” Martinez Semrad said.
Tanya Wilson said the county worked hard to ensure Vision 2050 would prioritize affordable housing, business opportunities and conservation in Orange County — not just now, but in the future.
“It's all built into this document,” Wilson said. “And we think it's important enough to fight for. Important enough to continue those conversations with the state, so we can have something in place that's a solid policy framework for Orange County.”
