State returns Titusville's comp-plan amendments as "more restrictive and burdensome"; staff to revise

City planning staff updated the Titusville City Council on March 24 that the city's transmitted comprehensive-plan Evaluation and Appraisal Review (EAR) was returned by the state as "null and void ab initio" because some proposed amendments were deemed "more restrictive and burdensome" under the referenced state statutory constraints.

The staff presentation said Florida Commerce flagged examples such as a future-land-use policy that would require Florida-friendly species and new development landscape plans; because that requirement was new, the state regarded it as more restrictive and therefore not allowed under the current statute cited in the staff report. Staff also said a proposed urban-forest-management policy was flagged as potentially problematic because the development of a plan might lead to more restrictive measures.

Staff told the council that Senate Bill 180-like restrictions (described in the presentation) limit the city's ability to adopt amendments that are more restrictive than state law and that a related bill that might have eased the restrictions did not pass. The city will revise policies to soften prohibitory language (removing or changing words such as "prohibit" or "require") or provide documentation that similar restrictions already exist elsewhere in the plan or land-development regulations, then retransmit to the state and schedule new local hearings with the Planning & Zoning and Environmental Commissions and the council.

Staff estimated the retransmission and local hearing sequence will take about two to three months. Councilmembers asked whether softened language could preserve policy intent while complying with state review; staff said that is the goal and that the city can retransmit once revisions are complete.

Next steps: staff will prepare revised language, run it through local commissions and then retransmit to Florida Commerce for review.