Webinar: Deep Dive into the Key Bills
October 28, 2025
Past and Today’s Sessions
Deep Dive 1 – July 29, 2025 - Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA0TdflrP3Q
Download presentation slides here: https://bit.ly/3U3IZXi
Download relevant bill text here: https://bit.ly/45c0V79
Moving Forward Together - Deep Dive at FPC 25 – 2 Law CM –
Temporary Link (through 1/1/26): Moving Forward Together - 091725.pptx
Will be uploaded soon at: APA Florida Chapter as part of the 2025 Daytona conference sessions info.
Deep Dive 3 and Next Steps – 1 Law CM
▪ Event #9319876
▪ Your Help Needed on SB 180
▪ Mitigation Banks – SB 492
▪ Anchoring – HB 481
▪ Annexations – SB 384
▪ Rural Lands & Agriculture Bill – SB 700
▪ Farm Products - HB 211
▪ Beaches – HB 1622
▪ What to expect from the 2026 session and Committee Weeks preview
▪ Q and A
SB 180
Where are we now?
- Monitoring current lawsuit
- Review HB 217
- Gather data and provide feedback to committees
TELL US YOUR STORIES - Impacts - Examples
Be on Lookout for UCF Survey
SB 492 – Mitigation Banks
Summary:
▪ Prescribes a credit release schedule for mitigation banks that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Water Management Districts are required to use.
▪ Instead of the current negotiation between the Applicant and the agencies regarding a credit release schedule, future mitigation banks would use the following credit release schedule:
▪ 30% for recording conservation easement and establishing financial assurances
▪ 30% for completion of initial construction activities
▪ 20% for meeting interim performance criteria
▪ 20% for meeting final success criteria
▪ Applicants can propose an alternative credit release schedule for agency consideration.
▪ Existing mitigation banks can request a permit modification to conform to the new statutory credit release schedule if the bank has not yet released credits for completion of construction activities.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 492 – Mitigation Banks
Summary:
▪ Allows credits to be used outside of mitigation service area with the use of a multiplier where DEP/WMD has determined the service area lacks the appropriate credit type.
▪ Credits within the project’s same regional watershed carry no multiplier.
▪ Credits from an adjacent regional watershed add a 1.2 multiplier.
▪ Each additional regional watershed boundary crossed adds an additional 0.25 multiplier.
▪ Out-of-kind credits (e.g., forested credits to offset herbaceous impacts) add an additional 0.50 multiplier.
▪ If out-of-service-area or out-of-kind mitigation is necessary, DEP/WMD must contact all mitigation banks within the service area of the proposed impact within 7 days of an applicant’s request.
▪ DEP/WMD must request accounting of all available credits and give banks 15 days to respond.
▪ DEP/WMD must notify applicant of its determination as to availability of credits within 15 days.
▪ Applicant may rely on DEP/WMD determination for 6 months only with respect to the pending application.
▪ Starting July 1, 2026, mitigation banks must file annual accountings of the number and type of credits available. DEP/WMD must annually compile and report data to the Legislature.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 492 – Mitigation Banks
Legal and Administrative Considerations
▪ The statute expressly limits the time (6 months) that a permit applicant may rely on a DEP/WMD credit-availability determination and precludes reliance for extensions, renewals, or other permits.
▪ Credit reservation contracts and purchase agreements should be revised to reflect statutory changes:
▪ Must account for the new release schedule.
▪ Include bank’s obligation to respond to agency accountings.
▪ Agencies must contact banks within 7 business days and allow 15 business days to respond. Failure to respond creates the statutory presumption that credits are not available.
▪ Annual accountings and the report to the Legislature become public. The industry should use these October reports to verify market availability, plan mitigation strategies, and to support challenges if DEP/WMD decisions are inconsistent with the reported supply.
SB 492 – Mitigation Banks
Impacts for Planners, City Managers, and Local Officials
Predictability
▪ The standardized methodology for purchasing and releasing credits grants greater predictability to the development process.
Flexibility
▪ The ability to utilize credit opportunities outside a project’s watershed provides greater flexibility to developers and removes the possibility of a “show-stopper”.
Transparency
▪ Annual reporting significantly improves the transparency of credit availability and allows for better project planning, especially in the early stages.
HB 481 – An Act Relating to Anchoring Limitation Areas.
Planning Summary:
▪ Amends 327.60,F.S. which restricts local regulation of vessels outside marked boundaries of mooring fields. Amendment provides a new exception in Counties with a population greater than 1.5 million.
▪ Amends 327.4108, F.S. to create new statutorily created anchoring limitation areas within certain sections of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County.
▪ Amends 327.4109, F.S. increasing the prohibited anchoring and mooring distance of vessels and floating structures near a public mooring field.
Legal Background/Authority
▪ Florida Constitution:
▪ Under Article I, Section 28 of the Florida Constitution, fishing, hunting and the taking of fish and wildlife is a protected right. However, those rights don’t limit the authority maintained by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission under Article IV, Section 9 of the Florida Constitution.
▪ Article IV, Section 9 of the Florida Constitution grants a great deal of authority to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to exercise executive and regulatory powers of the state over wildlife and aquatic life. FWC has the authority for regulating boating safety in the state, which is fleshed out in greater detail in Chapter 327, F. S. dealing with Vesel Safety.
▪ Legislature has designated the responsibility of managing sovereign submerged lands to the Governor/Cabinet in their capacity as the Board of Trustees of Internal Improvement Trust Fund. The Board is authorized to adopt rules regarding anchoring, mooring and attaching vessels, floating homes and other watercraft to the bottom of the sovereign submerged lands. The Board has not exercised its authority to adopt rules regarding anchoring.
Legal Background/Authority
▪ Navigation Terms:
▪ Anchoring and mooring refer to the boater’s practice of seeking and using a safe harbor on the public waterway system for an undefined duration.
▪ “Anchoring” – Using an anchor carried on the vessel.
▪ “Mooring” – Attaching the vessel to a device that is permanently affixed to the bottom of a waterway.
▪ “Anchorages” – Areas regularly used by boaters for either purpose, whether designated or managed as such.
▪ Mooring Fields – areas designated and used for a system of properly spaced moorings. Local governments are authorized under a Chapter 373 general permit to construct, operate, and maintain public mooring fields, each up to 100 vessels.
▪ Location must be in areas where navigational areas already exist between the field and the nearest access channel or navigable waters that the mooring field is to serve.
▪ Land-based support must be provided (bathrooms, showers, laundry, etc.)
▪ Prohibitions include major boat repair and maintenance, fueling activity (can only do from the land based support facility) and scraping/painting the boat.
▪ Floating Structure – floating entity with or without accommodations which is not primarily used as a means of transport on water but serves purposes or provides services typically associated with a structure or improvement to real property. Includes residence, place of business, offices with public access, hotel, motel, restaurant, lounge, clubhouse, meeting facility, storage or parking facility, mining platform, dredge, dragline or similar.
▪ Live-Aboard Vessel – vessel used solely as a residence and not for navigation; a vessel represented as a place of business or a professional or other commercial enterprise but EXPRESSLY EXCLUDES COMMERCIAL FISHING BOATS.
Legal Background/Authority
▪ Navigation Terms:
▪ Anchoring Limitation Areas refer to areas designated by statute (Section 327.4108, F.S.) as densely populated urban areas that have narrow state waterways, residential docking facilities and significant recreational boating traffic.
▪ These areas included:
▪ Middle River lying between NE 21st Court and the Intercoastal Waterway [Broward County]
▪ Sunset Lake [Miami-Dade County]
▪ Biscayne Bay [Miami-Dade County] lying between
▪ Palm Island and SR A1A
▪ Rivo Alto Island and Di Lido Island
▪ San Marino Island and Di Lido Island
▪ San Marino Island and San Marco Island
▪ San Marco Island and Biscayne Island
Legal Background/Authority
▪ Navigation Terms:
▪ Anchoring Limitation Areas – What are the Limits?
▪ Can’t anchor a vessel between the period of ½ hour after sunset and ½ hour before sunrise.
▪ Exceptions:
▪ Mechanical failure with an unreasonable risk of harm
▪ Imminent or existing weather conditions with an unreasonable risk of harm
▪ Vessel is attending a regatta, race, parade, tournament, exhibition or other special event such as fireworks, waterfront activities, music, etc.
▪ Does not apply to governmental owned/operated vessels for HSW, dredging vessels on an active job site, actively engaged in commercial fishing, or recreational fishing if actively tending hook and line or nets.
NOTE: Counties have the authority to establish an anchoring limitation area if adjacent to urban areas that have residential docking facilities and significant recreational boating traffic.
• The aggregate total of said area may not exceed 10% of the county’s delineated navigable in fact waterways.
• Each county anchoring limitation area must
• be less than 100 acres in size
• not include any marina or mooring field
• be clearly marked by buoys and signs
Legal Background/Authority
▪ Background Application of the Regulations:
▪ A boater can’t anchor:
▪ in a manner that constitutes a navigational hazard or interferes with another vessel (Emergency exceptions can apply).
▪ under a bridge or in or near a heavily traveled channel.
▪ within 150 feet of a marina, boat ramp, boatyard, or vessel launching or loading facility
▪ within 300 feet of a superyacht repair facility
▪ within 100 feet outward from the marked boundary of a public mooring field or a lesser distance if approved by the local government within which the mooring field is located.
▪ A local government:
▪ may enact or enforce ordinances that prohibit or restrict the anchoring of floating structures or liveaboard vessels within their jurisdictions and vessels that are within the marked boundaries of permitted mooring fields.
▪ may not enact, continue in effect or enforce any ordinance or local regulation that regulates the anchoring of vessels, other than live-aboard vessels and commercial vessels (excluding commercial fishing vessels) outside the marked boundaries of permitted mooring fields.
Relevant Bill Text:
▪ Section 1 of HB 481 creates a new exception from the general prohibition against local governments enacting or enforcing regulations related to the anchoring of vessels outside the marked boundaries of mooring fields. Yes, we are dealing with exceptions to the exception.
▪ The relevant language now reads:
▪ 327.60 Local regulations; limitations.-
▪ (2) This chapter and chapter 328 do not prevent the adoption of any ordinance or local regulation relating to operation of vessels, except that a county or municipality may not enact, continue in effect, or enforce any local regulation:
▪ (f) Regulating the anchoring of vessels outside the marked boundaries of mooring fields permitted as provide in s. 327.40, except for:
▪ 1. Live-aboard vessels; and
▪ 2. Commercial vessels, excluding commercial fishing vessels; and
▪ 3. Vessels anchored for a period of 1 hour or more between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise for more than 30 days in any 6-month period within the jurisdiction of a county with a population of 1.5 million or more, excluding any time the vessel is anchored overnight within the boundaries of a marked mooring field or any time the vessel is anchored overnight for the purpose of completing permitted marine construction, installation, or maintenance work.
Relevant Bill Text:
▪ Section 1 of HB 481 creates a new exception from the general prohibition against local governments enacting or enforcing regulations related to the anchoring of vessels outside the marked boundaries of mooring fields. Yes, we are dealing with exceptions to the exception.
▪ The relevant language now reads:
▪ 327.60 Local regulations; limitations.-
▪ (2) This chapter and chapter 328 do not prevent the adoption of any ordinance or local regulation relating to operation of vessels, except that a county or municipality may not enact, continue in effect, or enforce any local regulation:
▪ (f) Regulating the anchoring of vessels outside the marked boundaries of mooring fields permitted as provided in s. 327.40, except for:
▪ 1. Live-aboard vessels; and
▪ 2. Commercial vessels, excluding commercial fishing vessels; and
▪ 3. Vessels anchored for a period of 1 hour or more between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise for more than 30 days in any 6-month period within the jurisdiction of a county with a population of 1.5 million or more, excluding any time the vessel is anchored overnight within the boundaries of a marked mooring field or any time the vessel is anchored overnight for the purpose of completing permitted marine construction, installation, or maintenance work.
General Application
▪ This new language only applies to jurisdictions with a population of 1.5 million or greater.
▪ Today, that applies to Broward, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties.
▪ What can those jurisdictions now do?
▪ They may continue to enact or enforce ordinances that prohibit or restrict the anchoring of floating structures or live-aboard vessels within their jurisdictions and vessels that are within the marked boundaries of permitted mooring fields, as well as live-aboards and commercial vessels (but not commercial fishing vessels) outside the permitted mooring fields BUT NOW
▪ They may regulate vessels outside of the permitted mooring field if they are anchored overnight (for 1 hr or more) for more than 30 days in any 6-month period
▪ [but you can’t count when they are within the marked boundaries of the mooring field]
▪ [nor when they are completing permitted marine construction, installation or maintenance work]
▪ If the permitted mooring fields extend the authority of the local jurisdiction (think an embassy in sovereign submerged lands) boaters that stay outside the embassy walls may still be subject to the rule of that jurisdiction if they satisfy the overnight standards cited above.
Relevant Bill Text:
▪ Section 2 of HB 481 amends section 327.4108, F.S. to add new statutorily designated Anchoring Limitations Areas in Miami-Dade County.
▪ Anchoring Limitation Areas refer to areas designated by statute (Section 327.4108, F.S.) as densely populated urban areas that have narrow state waterways, residential docking facilities and significant recreational boating traffic.
▪ These areas now include:
▪ Middle River lying between NE 21st Court and the Intercoastal Waterway [Broward County]
▪ Sunset Lake [Miami-Dade County]
▪ Biscayne Bay [Miami-Dade County] lying between
▪ Palm Island and SR A1A
▪ Palm Island and Star Island
▪ Palm Island and Hibiscus Island
▪ Palm Island and Watson Island
▪ Rivo Alto Island and Di Lido Island
▪ San Marino Island and Di Lido Island
▪ San Marino Island and San Marco Island
▪ San Marco Island and Biscayne Island
▪ The Sunset Islands
▪ Sunset Island I and SR 112.
Relevant Bill Text:
▪ Section 3 of HB 481 amends section 327.4109, F.S. to increase from 100 feet to 300 feet the distance from a marked boundary of a public mooring field within which a vessel may not anchor or moor.
▪ Application of the Regulations:
▪ A boater can’t anchor:
▪ in a manner that constitutes a navigational hazard or interferes with another vessel (Emergency exceptions can apply).
▪ under a bridge or in or near a heavily traveled channel.
▪ within 150 feet of a marina, boat ramp, boatyard, or vessel launching or loading facility
▪ within 300 feet of a superyacht repair facility
▪ within 100 300 feet outward from the marked boundary of a public mooring field or a lesser distance if approved by the local government within which the mooring field is located.
SB 384 – An Act Relating to Annexing StateOwned Land
Planning Summary:
▪ Amends 171.0413(1), F.S. to create a new obligation for municipalities annexing state-owned lands.
▪ It creates a prerequisite for the municipality to notify “each member of the legislative delegation of the COUNTY in which the land is located.” (
EMPHASIS ADDED
)
▪ The notification must be in writing or by email.
▪ The notification must be provided “when the advertisement for the first public hearing is published.”
▪ The bill also reenacts 101.6102(5), F.S. and 171.042, F.S. as both refer back to 171.0413. [No substantive edits in either of those statutes.]
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 384
General
▪ The burden on the municipalities is very low.
▪ There is presumably some public benefit to keeping the state-level elected officials aware of what may be going on back in district.
▪ CAUTION: This notice requirement will be used infrequently and easily could be overlooked.
▪ The new requirement is found in the statutory section dealing with process and procedures for annexation.
▪ There is no explicit reference to the notice requirement in 171.042, F.S. – the section which outlines the information to be provided by the annexing municipality to demonstrate that a particular annexation is appropriate. (This includes water and sewer plans, feasibility studies, etc.)
▪ If you just use 171.042, F.S. as your application/prerequisite checklist, you will overlook this notice requirement.
▪ Best practice:
▪ Edit your annexation application forms and add a data field to identify whether state owned lands are included in the subject parcel(s).
▪ Include a citation to 171.0413(1), F.S. on said form or in your back of house software to trigger the additional notice requirement.
▪ Do what you can to give your planners a fair shot to catch this requirement early.
▪ Do you notify your delegation of ALL annexations, regardless of state ownership?
▪ The Major Warning:
▪ On its face, this is a notice provision.
▪ Failure of Notice → Void ab initio!
▪ Don’t send your annexation package back to the starting line due to the lack of an email.
SB 700 – Rural Lands and Agriculture
Summary:
▪ Creation of s. 163.3162(5) – “Housing for Legally Verified Agricultural Workers”
▪ Prohibits adoption of regulations that inhibit construction of housing for legally verified agricultural workers on land classified as agricultural under s. 193.461 and operated as a bona-fide farm.
▪ Lists criteria for “legally verified agricultural worker” and ties eligibility to s. 448.095.
▪ Provides criteria that must be satisfied to construct or install housing units for legally verified agricultural workers, including structural requirements, dwelling separation, climate-controlled square footage cap, setbacks, and buffer and screening options.
▪ Requires property owners to maintain housing records for at least 3 years and make records available for inspection within 14 days upon government request.
▪ Requires FDACS to adopt rules implementing the new subsection, including inspection protocols and enforcement, and to submit certain information to the State Board of Immigration Enforcement on a quarterly basis.
▪ Provides enforcement authority for FDACS to investigate complaints, inspect, and issue determinations.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 700 – Rural Lands and Agriculture
Summary:
▪ Surplus of State-Owned Lands – amendments to s. 253.0341
▪ Authorizes FDACS, in consultation with DEP, to surplus lands acquired from an electric utility under s. 366.20, where those lands are determined suitable for bona-fide agriculture.
▪ Requires FDACS to retain a rural-lands-protection easement and deposit sale proceeds into the Incidental Trust Fund for less than fee simple land acquisition.
▪ Lands designated as state forest, state park, or wildlife management area are ineligible.
▪ Retroactive to January 1, 2009.
▪ Criminalizes unauthorized or disruptive drone use over agricultural lands, private property, state wildlife management lands, and sport shooting and training ranges, with escalating penalties for repeat offenses.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 700 – Rural Lands and Agriculture
Summary:
▪ Sale & Management of Lands Owned by Electric Utilities – creation of s. 366.20
▪ Lands acquired or owned by an electric utility on or after January 1, 2009, that have been classified as agricultural in the 5 years preceding acquisition, must be offered to FDACS for fee simple acquisition before sale to private entities.
▪ Requires utilities to issue a written “intent to sell” by certified mail 30 days before offering for sale/transfer; FDACS has 30 days from receipt to issue a written intent to purchase.
▪ EV Charging Station Regulation – amendments to s. 366.94
▪ Authorizes FDACS to establish standards for placement, design, installation, maintenance, and operation of EV charging stations, including EV supply equipment, supporting equipment, and associated parking spaces.
▪ Requires local governments to issue EV charging station permits based solely on FDACS standards
▪ Requires EV chargers to be registered with FDACS, authorizes FDACS to issue immediate final orders and seek injunctions for violations, and provides penalties.
▪ Preempts local regulation of EV charging stations.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 700 – Rural Lands and Agriculture
Summary:
▪ Mosquito/Arthropod Control
▪ Multiple revisions to Mosquito Control Program budgeting, reporting, the integrated arthropod management plan, inventory and transfer of equipment, and FDACS’ enforcement powers.
▪ Best Management Practices (BMP) Enrollment
▪ Authorizes FDACS to establish an enrollment-by-rule process that agricultural pollutant sources and agricultural producers may use in lieu of adopted BMPs where certain parcel requirements are met (less than 25 acres; agriculturally designated; water use not to exceed 100,000 gallons per day; not a vegetable crop, agronomic crop, nursery, or dairy operation; not abutting an impaired water body; not part of a larger operation).
▪ Requires certain onsite inspection within basin management action plan areas, mandates annual nutrient record submission by enrolled agricultural producers, and requires FDACS to collect and retain records.
▪ Prohibits use of any additive to public drinking water supply that is not for the explicit purpose of improving water quality.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 700 – Rural Lands and Agriculture
Summary:
▪ Allows FDACS to provide pest control certificate examinations in person and remotely through a third-party vendor.
▪ Honest Services Registry – creation of s. 496.431
▪ FDACS is required to publish a registry of charitable organizations that do not “solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, contributions, funding, support, or services from” and whose “messaging and content are not directly or indirectly produced or influenced by” a foreign source of concern.
▪ Prohibits transport, import, sale, etc. of “spores or mycelium capable of producing mushrooms or other material which will contain a controlled substance.”
▪ Grants FDACS rulemaking authority to enforce the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s standard of identity for meat, poultry, and poultry products and prohibit the sale of plant-based products mislabeled as meat, poultry, or poultry products.
▪ Creates annual petroleum registration program for owners/operators of petroleum transport vehicles and creates the Florida Retail Fuel Transfer Switch Modernization Grant Program.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 700 – Rural Lands and Agriculture
Summary:
▪ Creates the Florida Aquaculture Foundation as a direct-support organization to conduct programs and activities related to the assistance, promotion, and furtherance of aquaculture.
▪ Creates the Silviculture Emergency Recovery Program to assist timber landowners whose timber land was damaged because of a declared emergency.
▪ Creates the Florida Beef Marketing Program to conduct research to expand the uses of beef and beef products and strengthen the market position of Florida’s cattle industry.
▪ Creates the Florida Farmer Financial Protection Act to prohibit financial institutions from discriminating in the provision of financial services to an agricultural producer based on “ESG factors,” including greenhouse gas emissions, use of fossil-fuel derived fertilizer, or use of fossil-fuel powered machinery.
▪ Prohibits local governments from adopting regulations that limit activities of public educational facilities for agricultural education.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
SB 700 – Rural Lands and Agriculture
Impacts for Planners, City Managers, and Local Officials
▪ Preemption:
▪ Government may not adopt or enforce regulations that inhibit construction or installation of housing for legally verified agricultural workers.
▪ Strengthens preemption of EV charging stations to the state, including EV supply equipment, supporting equipment and associated parking spaces.
▪ Government may not restrict activities of public educational facilities for agricultural education, including storage of animals and equipment.
▪ Requires certain lands acquired/owned by electric utilities to be offered to FDACS for fee-simple acquisition prior to private sale. This impacts surplus property disposition in rural areas.
HB 211 – Farm Products
Summary:
▪ Revises the statutory definition of “farm product” in s. 163.3162
▪ “Farm product” means any plant or plant product (as defined in s. 581.011), “regardless of whether such plants and plant products are edible or non-edible,” or any animal useful to humans, and includes (but is not limited to) any product derived therefrom.
▪ States that “collection, storage, processing and distribution of a farm product” are activities of a bona-fide farm operation that a governmental entity may not prohibit, restrict, regulate or otherwise limit on land classified as agricultural (pursuant to s. 193.461) if the activity is regulated through implemented best management practices, interim measures, or state rules or is expressly regulated by USDA, USACE, or EPA.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025
HB 211 – Farm Products
Impacts for Planners, City Managers, and Local Officials
▪ In case it wasn’t abundantly clear. . . local and regional governments are prohibited from regulating ANY bona-fide farm operation on land classified as agricultural by the respective property appraiser.
▪ This includes on-site biomass processing facilities.
▪ Where a farm operation’s collection, storage, processing, or distribution of newlydefined “farm products” is regulated by implemented BMPs or state rules, or federally by USDA, USACE, or EPA, local governments cannot enact or enforce regulations that prohibit or restrict those activities on agriculturally-classified land.
▪ The bill may limit a local government’s ability to deny approvals for processing and distribution facilities when those facilities and activities are BMP-regulated.
HB 1622 – Repeal Customary Use Process
Planning Summary:
• Section 1 repeals s. 163.035, F.S., which means a return to how customary use rights were determined prior to enactment of the statute:
• A governmental entity may declare the existence of a customary use and adopt a local customary use ordinance without following the procedures in s. 163.035, F.S.
• If enacted, property owners must file a lawsuit challenging the ordinance and demonstrate in court that the public does not enjoy customary use rights over their privately-owned beaches.
• Courts will apply the common law doctrine of customary use when ascertaining, on a case-by-case basis, whether the public enjoys customary use rights over privately-owned beaches.
Effective Date: June 24, 2025
HB 1622 – Establish ECL in Limited Areas
Planning Summary:
▪ Section 2 declares:
• The mean high water line to be the ECL in certain counties. Specifically, with respect to those counties adjacent to the Gulf of America having at least 3 municipalities and an estimated population of less than 275,000, the bill:
• Bypasses certain existing statutory procedures for establishing the erosion control line (ECL) on critically eroded beaches and declares the mean high water line to be the ECL.
• Directs the Board of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to prepare and record, in the official and platting records of the counties subject to the bill, certain documents confirming the ECL’s location on critically eroded shorelines, but only if an ECL has not already been established.
HB 1622 – Proceed with Beach Renourishment in Limited Areas
Planning Summary:
• Authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to proceed with beach restoration projects for areas it has designated as critically eroded, and provides that notwithstanding existing law, such projects do not require public easements.
• Includes legislative declarations that the state does not intend to extend its ownership claims beyond what it already owns, and that beach restoration projects for critically eroded beaches are in the public interest.
HB 1622 – Administrative Actions and Planning Toolbox
▪ Planners working for FDEP should be mindful of the elimination of noticing requirements for the establishment of ECL in certain counties.
▪ Local planners for countries and municipalities along the coastline should carefully consider the costs and impact to beachfront private property owners when advising policy makers regarding any legislation (Ordinance, Resolution, etc.) establishing the public’s use of private property on the basis of customary use.
2026SessionPreview October 28, 2025
AnnaGrace DePaolo
DougBell
FloridaLegislativeKeyDates
InterimCommittee
Week1
InterimCommittee
Week2
InterimCommittee
Week3
InterimCommittee
Week4
InterimCommittee
Week5
InterimCommittee
Week6
Governor’sBudget Recommendations
2026LegislativeSession
• October6,2025–October10,2025
• October13,2025–October17,2025
• November 3, 2025 – November 7, 2025
• November 17, 2025 – November 21, 2025
• December1,2025–December5,2025
• December8,2025–December12,2025
• DuetoLegislaturebyDecember14,2025
• January13,2026–March13,2026
ImportantBillandAppropriationProjectDeadlines
August 18
November 21
January 7
• Members can begin filing bills and appropriation projects
• House bill submission deadline to drafting
• House appropriation project form submission deadline
• House bill submission final draft form deadline
January 9
• House bill filing deadline – 5:00pm
• House appropriation project form publication deadline – 5:00pm
January 13
• Senate bill filing deadline – 12:00pm (Opening Day of Session)
January 16
• House attestation form submission deadline – 5:00pm
February 12
• House Ceremonial Resolution submission deadline – 5:00pm
February 26
• Ceremonial Resolution Filing Deadline (46th Day of Session)
2026LegislativeSessionPriorities
• Property Tax Reform
• Rural Renaissance
• K-12 Education Funding Revision
• Medical Negligence
• Congressional Redistricting
• Open Carry
• DOGE
2026Legislation
Bills of Interest
(Filed as of 10/27)
• Total bills filed: 275/2000+
• SB 48 – Housing by Sen. Gaetz
• HB 97 – Transportation Concurrency by Rep. Grow
• HB 123 – Special Districts by Rep. Overdorf
• HJR 201, 203, 205, 207, 209, 211, 213, and HB 215 – Property Tax Proposals by Reps. Steele, Miller, Porras, Abbott, Busatta, Overdorf, Griffitts, and Albert
• SB 208 – Land Use Development Regulations by Rep. McClain
• *HB 217 and SB 218 – Land Use Regulations by Rep. Abbott and Sen. Gaetz and Sen. Trumbull
Potential / On the Lookout
• SB 180 revision
• Impact Fees
• Ag Enclaves
• Community Redevelopment Agencies
• Live Local Pt. 4
• Regional Planning Councils
• Regional Transit Authorities (HART)
• Local Government Accountability Report Card
SB180Update
Overview:
• Revisions are in discussion.
• Section 18: Section 252.422, F.S. – Restrictions on county or municipal regulations after a hurricane.
• 1 year prohibition after a hurricane makes landfall on adopting land-use regulations, comp plan or land development policies, regulations or procedures, that are considered “more restrictive or burdensome.”
• Section 28:
• All provisions apply until Oct. 1, 2027, and apply retroactively to Aug. 1, 2024. Impacts all 67 counties.
HB 217 and SB 218 – Land Use Regulations:
• Narrows SB 180, amends Section 28.
• Defines“impacted local government” as a county, and each municipality within the county, listed in the FDD for Hurricanes Helene, Debby, and Milton that was deemed eligible for both individual assistance and federal aid.
Updates:
• Working with Senator DiCeglie and staff on proposed changes.
• Sharing the APA FL survey responses from members on the impact of SB 180 to guide discussions.
• Engaging with other stakeholders on proposed changes.
“I want this to be narrowly focused. I want this to be about recovery.”
“At the end of the day, we do have home rule. If a county like Orange County does something I might disagree with, but those voters and politicians voted for something, I did not intend for SB 180 to get in the way of it,” he said.
Discussion Questions?
Thank you for attending!