Over the last several years, local governments have been complaining about how state lawmakers have been taking local control on issues like local land-use and regulatory decisions.
A small list published by the James Madison Institute details some of the areas where the state has overridden local authority.
Travel and housing issues. Rideshare drivers like Uber and Lyft. Upzoning commercial, industrial, and mixed-use spaces to allow for housing, to name a few.
Policy expert George Gibbs with the Center for Economic Prosperity notes that the role of anti-growth special interests in the state has grown prompting Tallahassee lawmakers to require local governments to accept “certain types” of development in specific areas zoned as commercial, industrial, or mixed-use. Florida has also increased funding and tax subsidies for residential housing development that is affordable.
Gibbs also points out that bills promoted by state lawmakers prohibit local governments from having the final say on multifamily and mixed-use residential development on non-residentially zoned property, including religious spaces. Including height limitations, parking regulations, and other elements intended to prevent local governments from micromanaging project development.
State elected officials defend their positions, stating that local city and county governments have become too regulatory. They say their bills would limit the red tape when it comes to the permitting processing timelines for local governments.
Doug Wheeler says state preemptions are an indicator of a larger problem with local land-use planning in Florida (and across the nation), which itself was a product of overzealous statewide planning.
“These legislative proposals, while laudable, fail to address underlying structural problems in the regulatory system. State-directed management of local land use planning does little to alleviate the problem of local government micromanagement.” Said Wheeler.
Local governments have imposed delays and cost on proposed projects, but Wheeler advocates for state lawmakers to focus less on land-use type and instead more focus on public impacts, which could significantly reduce the time required to approve projects while mitigating harms to the public.
The bottom line is if Tallahassee continues to down the road of having the final say on state-directed planning and growth management, there will be significant costs.
“The Florida Legislature has re-focused its efforts on state-directed preemptions of local government land-use plans. A better strategy would be to reframe the entire process of regulating development through a focus on developmental impacts, rather than compliance to state statutes or strict conformance to local land-use plans,” Wheeler said.
