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County attorney warns new Florida law limits land‑use changes after storms; office reviewing local code and charter effects
Summary
Seminole County’s attorney told commissioners that Senate Bill 180, now law, restricts counties from adopting more restrictive land development rules for one year after a storm within 100 miles and includes a retroactive provision to Aug. 1, 2024; the county is reviewing code amendments and its charter changes for potential conflict.
County Attorney Kate LaTorre briefed the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners on July 22 about Senate Bill 180, a recently enacted state law that imposes new procedural and substantive limits on local land‑use regulation in the aftermath of certain storm events.
LaTorre said the bill contains two principal components. The emergency‑management strand requires counties to post specified recovery permitting information and implement other processes intended to simplify post‑storm permitting; LaTorre’s office will deliver a checklist for county emergency management and administrative staff to formalize those steps. The land‑use strand added in the final form of the bill, she said, bars counties that fall within specified disaster declarations — or that are within 100 miles of a storm track — from adopting “more restrictive or burdensome” comprehensive plan or land‑development regulation amendments or from imposing more burdensome procedures for approving site plans, permits and development orders for one year after a qualifying storm event.
Concerns and retroactivity: LaTorre said the law restarts the one‑year restriction each time a storm comes within 100 miles of the county and includes a retroactive provision for certain 2024 emergency declarations that dates back to Aug. 1, 2024. The county attorney said the office is reviewing land‑use and code amendments adopted since Aug. 1, 2024 and evaluating whether any of those actions would be voided by the statute. She also said the county’s recently adopted charter amendment requiring a supermajority vote to remove property from the rural boundary is, in the county attorney’s initial review, not affected by the bill because it is a voter‑approved charter standard that does not itself grant development approvals.
Next steps: LaTorre said her office is finalizing a detailed memo and checklist for staff and emergency management and will continue a line‑by‑line review of pending code amendments to determine whether any part of the county’s actions since Aug. 1, 2024 needs correction or further legal action. Commissioners asked for prompt follow‑up and indicated they will monitor how other counties respond to the statute.
