Summary of the 2000 Legislative Session

Major Victories for Growth Management and the Environment (Foresight, Summer 2000)

The 2000 Legislature came in like the proverbial lion and went out like a lamb. Despite serious attacks on all fronts, in the end Senate leadership prevailed, extending for another year the protection of Florida's growth management process and environmental protection framework. In the final hours of the session, one harmful bill after another went through "meltdown" and failed.

While 1000 Friends of Florida is pleased with the outcome of the session, we remain concerned that the process was so heavily dominated by development, agriculture, and other special interests. It is a sad legacy, indeed, when the biggest victories for growth management and the environment resulted from the failure of bad bills rather than passage of good ones.

1000 Friends of Florida as part of a 28-member-strong coalition of public interest groups played an important leadership role, pushing hard for reasonable refinement of growth management and continued protection for the environment. This, combined with tough Senate leadership and effective media coverage of the issues helped save the day. We would also like to thank those of you who responded to our e-mail alerts and sent your comments to legislators on various bills. Following is a round-up of some of the major bills contemplated during the 2000 session.

1000 Friends of Florida worked to ensure the failure of the following harmful bills:

Growth Management--Before the session even opened, Representative George Albright (R-Ocala) introduced a bill to gut growth management. The bill removed state oversight of planning in favor of 67 unfunded local review councils, eliminated the Development of Regional Impact process, mandated school concurrency, reduced citizen challenge provisions, and conveyed several hundred thousands acres of state and public lands to private property owners. This bill was soon superseded by an alleged "compromise" bill introduced by the House Community Affairs Committee which contained many of the same bad provisions, but also introduced a study commission (dominated by development interests) to bring back more changes during the next legislative session.

Th "compromise" bill was designed to mesh with a more positive bill introduced by Senator Tom Lee (R-Bradenton) which called for no substantive changes to growth management legislation this session, and for the creation of a balanced and fair study commission to bring back reasonable refinement next session. While 1000 Friends and members of the coalition strongly supported Senator Lee's bill, we also fully endorsed his decision to let the bill fail in the final hours of the session rather passing it with bad amendments. As Foresight goes to press, Governor Jeb Bush is in the process of establishing his own study commission through executive order. 1000 Friends and the coalition intend to keep following this process closely over the coming critical months.

Submerged Sovereign Lands–Bills with serious negative implications for growth management would have turned over as much as half a million acres of publicly owned lands to private owners. Introduced by Representative Paula Dockerty (R-Lakeland) and Senator Skip Campbell (D-Tamarac), these bills ran counter to more than 100 years of Florida case law. Attorney General Bob Butterworth denounced the bills as "one of the dumbest things the state of Florida has ever done." Thanks in part to extensive media coverage exposing the special interest roots of this legislation, these bills ultimately failed in the final hours of the session.

Property Rights–Bills introduced by Representative J.D. Alexander (R-Winter Haven) and Senator George Kirkpatrick (R-Gainesville) declared that any action by local governments to reduce development density or intensity to or below one residence per five acres would be defined as an "inordinate burden" under the Burt Harris Private Property Rights Act. Local government would have had to pay the property owner for reduction in density below that threshold, undermining efforts to protect rural and environmentally sensitive lands. This bill died when it was not considered by the Senate.

Citizen Standing–Representative Allan Bense (R-Panama City) and Senator Jim King (R-Jacksonville) introduced bills to substantially reduce citizen rights to challenge local development proposals. These would have impeded citizen rights under Florida's Environmental Protection Act of 1971, which gives to "any citizen" standing to sue to stop violations of this state's environmental rules and laws. This bill failed in the Senate, and closet efforts to amend it onto other legislation were blocked. 1000 Friends, Audubon, Florida Wildlife Federation and Save the Manatee Club took the lead on killing this bill.

Administrative Rulemaking Authority–Introduced by Senator Lisa Carlton (R-Osprey), this bill gave the Florida Department of Community Affairs additional rulemaking authority to reduce growth management compliance requirements. 1000 Friends quickly pointed out that this was unconstitutional and bad public policy. Senator Carlton subsequently pulled this bill from her committee; it did resurface later in the session, but ultimately failed.

Rodman Dam–Over the years, numerous bills have been introduced to prevent the restoration of the Okalawaha River. This year's attempt appeared again in bills introduced in the House and Senate and as several back door amendments to establish Rodman Dam as a state recreation area. All failed in the Senate.

Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge–Amendments aimed at repealing the current lease arrangement for the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge were withdrawn and did not resurface.

Billboards–At the end of the session, a "sneak" amendment was added to eliminate the ability of local governments to remove billboards by amortizing the costs over a 10 to 20 year period. This amendment was ultimately pulled.

Bills that Passed

"Right to Farm"–While 1000 Friends certainly supports the right to farm, this series of bills included language that would have prevented local governments from applying any land use restrictions to agricultural and timbering operations. The Florida League of Cities and Florida Association of Counties joined 1000 Friends and the coalition in opposing these bills because of the restrictions they would place on growth management. What passed in the end was a modified version that limits local government authority to regulate agricultural and timber operations when best management practices have been adopted by rule by a water management district, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, or the Fish and Conservation Commission. 1000 Friends remains opposed to this provision, and will monitor its impact on the ability of local governments to plan.

Affordable Housing–1000 Friends played a key role in passage in some of the few constructive pieces of legislation of the 2000 session. The biggest, most important housing action came in the appropriations bill, which fully funded housing under the Sadowski Act at over $175 million for Fiscal Year 2000-2001; local governments will receive more than $123 million of those dollars under the State Housing Initiatives Program (SHIP). A large neighborhood revitalization package also passed, with improvements to SHIP and the Predevelopment Loan Program (PLP), as well as an amendment to the state Fair Housing Act related to affordable housing. Positive amendments make it easier to put SHIP monies toward rental developments, and increase median purchase limits, reducing a barrier in areas where housing prices have been rising very fast. With regard to PLP, amendments authorize the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC) to forgive and make a grant of portions of a loan a sponsor is unable to repay due to inability to obtain construction or permanent financing for the development, and authorizes the FHFC to set annual interest rates at 3 percent or less. The amendment to the state fair housing act will make it difficult for land use permits to be denied when the opposition is NIMBY ("Not In My Back Yard") based on the fact that the proposed development is to be affordable housing.

Everglades Funding–This legislation ensures that Florida will pay its half of the estimated $7.8 billion restoration costs. While 1000 Friends a few concerns about the source of some of this revenue, overall we support this effort to restore the Everglades.

Okeechobee Restoration–In another positive move, the legislature authorized funding for the restoration of Lake Okeechobee.

We at 1000 Friends thank all of you again for your back-up and support during the difficult 2000 session. Unfortunately, we believe this is only the beginning. We already are gearing up for whatever the 2001 legislative session might bring!