Another session, another Trojan Horse for devious enemies of public participation and environmental preservation.
For regular updates: do check on bill status here:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/299/
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/354
COMMENTARY
Florida lawmakers promote ‘Blue Ribbon’ developers at public’s expense
Two bills would block public participation and tie hands of local governments so big landowners can do what they want.
A trail leads through a forest in St. Johns County. Two bills that would radically alter how development occurs in Florida appear to be the work of a timber company that owns 11,000 acres in St. Johns County.
During the holidays you see ribbons and bows everywhere you look. You find them on the packages under the tree and at the gift wrap counter. Dealers even stick big bows on top of new cars. But the biggest gift of all is working its way through the Florida Legislature right now, complete with a great big bow on top.
I’m talking about a couple of bills, SB 354 and HB 299, that would grant big landowners the power to tie up in knots anyone who might object to their ginormous development plans.
No more fighting a wealthy landowner in a packed public hearing, hoping to persuade your elected representatives to vote no. These bills would give an automatic green light to some big, bad projects, as long as they check a few boxes on a form.
“This is a real estate development bill unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” investigative reporter Jason Garcia said on his “Seeking Rents” podcast.
The bills call these big developments “Blue Ribbon” projects. The term implies they would win an award for excellence, like a prize pig at the county fair.
Instead, I think these two bills should win the award for the boldest, most brazen ripoff of the public in the 2026 session. The big landowners would be the ones resembling Porky and Babe, stuffing their snouts in the trough with no one to rein them in.
“If these bills go through, they totally rob the public of their right to have a say in their community,’ said Gil Smart, executive director of the anti-pollution group Vote Water.
The bills would limit local governments to just 60 days to determine whether a proposed project meets the bills’ vague criteria. If a city or county can’t meet that deadline, the project is automatically approved, and that light stays green for 50 years.
Most dangerous of all, the bills say these projects can be approved by local government administrators, not by the elected officials.
“It’s a way to keep the public completely out of the planning process,” said Kim Dinkins, policy and planning director of the smart-growth group 1000 Friends of Florida.
You can see why developers want to cut the public out. They view the public the way the villains in “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” viewed those groovy teens driving the Mystery Machine.
They would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for that meddling public!
The meddling public
Over and over, developers have persuaded the Legislature to take away the public’s ability to object to bad projects.
Just two years ago, the Legislature passed — and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law — a bill to rob the public of the power to hold a voter-led referendum on their local land-use plans.
Yet, all over Florida, people have continued loudly objecting to developments that would ruin their slice of paradise. They have repeatedly stood up for their existing zoning rules and comprehensive plans against big-money builders.
For instance, the Sarasota Audubon Society defeated the nation’s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton, when it attempted to build 170 homes on a low-lying 50-acre ranch next to an Audubon bird sanctuary. Audubon folks bested the homebuilder three times.
In Manatee County, an effort by politically powerful developer Pat Neal to build a 440-home subdivision on 217 acres of land in a flood zone ran into so much opposition from the neighbors that he got a unanimous “no!” vote by the county commissioners.
And near Orlando, a group called Save Orange County managed to beat back an attempt by a Texas company to build an 1,800-home development with the ridiculous name of “Sustanee.”
In each case, the developer was trying to change the property’s classification to something that would allow their development to proceed. In each case, public hearings by the local government allowed neighbors to raise serious objections that persuaded the elected officials to say no.
The more resistance the public puts up, the more the developers try to snatch away their ability to object.
Just look at what happened last year with Senate Bill 180, which handcuffed local governments so they can’t change anything to improve safety after what we learned from our multiple hurricanes in 2023.
The developers wanted to be able to build the exact same thing in the exact same place, no matter how risky. Now 20 or so local governments are suing to overturn that law.
Fourteen years after then-Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature dismantled our growth management system, Floridians are figuring out that this put the developers in the driver’s seat and they’re driving the state into a ditch.
To block the spread of sprawl, some counties have passed rules that say certain regions must remain rural, period. Last month, the Florida Attorney General’s Office — apparently channeling the build-and-die crowd — claimed that the rural boundaries in Seminole and Orange counties violate private property rights and would likely be found unconstitutional.
The Orlando Sentinel, in reporting on this ridiculous AG opinion, noted, “Seminole’s rural boundary was approved by voters in 2004 and its backers have prevailed in challenges in both state and federal courts.” In other words, our esteemed AG appears to be D-U-M-B.
The fact that developers persuaded the Florida attorney general to make a fool of himself should show you how much influence they have. And now you know how desperate they are to pass this new law to cut out the public.
Full of holes
Florida has been described as a sunny place for shady people. Why that’s not our official state slogan, I don’t know.
But bear that in mind when I tell you that the one part of these two pro-developer bills that sounds attractive is as full of holes as a block of Swiss cheese.
The bills say any landowner who wants to get these development favors must set aside 60% of their property as a “reserve area.” The sponsors have been promoting this as if we’re going to get a lot of free parkland. In fact, I’ve seen it referred to in some publications as a “land conservation bill.”
But it’s not.
The language in the “reserve area” part of the bill is as loose as the wobbly wheels on an old shopping cart. It doesn’t require the landowner to keep that 60% in one contiguous area. It could be scattered here and there across the whole expanse.
Even worse, it doesn’t require keeping the land in its natural state. You could build a power station, a pickleball court, or a retention pond and call it “a reserve area” and you’d be in compliance.
Heck, put in an 18-hole golf course for your big development and call it a “reserve area.” You’ve got to reserve a tee time, right?
Who would come up with such a misleading mess of a bill? Well, dear reader, follow the ribbon of connections.
Bulldoze the whole thing
The sponsors of these bills are clearly looking to boost their own industry, not serve the public.
SB 354 is sponsored by Sen. Stan McClain, R-Ocala, who also happens to be — SURPRISE! — a homebuilder in Marion County. In fact, his legislative website says he’s executive officer of the Marion County Building Industry Association.
“These bills are about the Florida we leave behind,” he told FloridaPolitics.com. “They secure meaningful land conservation at no cost to taxpayers, while giving our state a responsible way to plan for future growth.”
This is what’s technically known as “a load of hooey.” To McClain, the responsible way to plan for future growth is to say, “Let the developers do whatever they want.”
McClain is an old hand at promoting bills designed to boost his bottom line. Last year he pushed a billthat would have made it easier for developers to pave over every rural parcel in the state. Fortunately, it died in committee.
The companion bill to McClain’s, HB 299, is sponsored by Rep. Lauren Melo, R-Naples, a real estate broker. Last week, her bill had its first subcommittee hearing, and trust me when I tell you that Melo displayed the kind of hard-charging real estate salesmanshipthat Alec Baldwin praised in “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
During the Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee hearing, she called her bill “the innovative path that Florida needs.” She also sneered that critics of the bill are just “knee-jerk obstructionists.”
The “obstructionists” included not only a lobbyist for Audubon of Florida but also someone from the Florida Association of Counties. The two of them poked more holes in her arguments than a Krispy Kreme employee prepping a couple dozen honey-glazed.
They were not alone in pointing out problems. Members of Melo’s own party found flaws. Jacksonville’s Rep. Dean Black, for instance, said he was troubled by the fact that the “reserve” section doesn’t require the landowner to “preserve” anything.
“You could bulldoze the whole thing and cover it with solar panels and call it ‘conservation,’” Black said.
But then a curious thing happened. Instead of voting the bill down as fatally flawed, most of the people on the subcommittee voted to approve it. They even said they looked forward to seeing Melo “fix” those little quibbles before her bill reaches the House floor for a vote.
It’s sort of like your kindergarten teacher noting that you still haven’t learned how to count to 10, but she’s letting you move up to the first grade anyway. Hey, you’ll probably pick up those math skills somewhere before you collect your high school diploma, right?
Unravel the wrapping
The big question, of course, is who’s really pushing this.
Unfortunately, unlike your great aunt’s pet labradoodle, the bill doesn’t come with a collar showing the identity of its owner. But we can make a guess or two.
To begin with, there aren’t too many entities that own more than 10,000 acres of land in Florida. That narrows the list down from 23 million Florida residents to a few hundred.
According to Garcia’s “Seeking Rents” podcast, one little known company has hired more than a dozen lobbyists to promote these bills. The company, started in 2022, is called “Big Lands Transect Collaborative LLC,” and it’s based in Dallas.
Despite its deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas origin, the company has a Jacksonville address. Turns out that address is shared by another big landowner: First Coast Land and Timber LLC.
In 2018, First Coast Land and Timber “completed $40 million worth of land deals to acquire about 11,000 acres of property in southern St. Johns County,” the St. Augustine Record reported. “It’s unclear what the immediate plans are for the property, but that part of the county is being rapidly developed, especially for new homes.”
First Coast is owned by a New York City company that manages hedge funds, Ruane Cunniff, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record.
Hedge funds are notorious for seeking big profits, whether they’re investing in condominiums or mobile home parks. They are not known for their conservation work. But maybe this one’s different.
Another company that’s located at that same Jacksonville address, Jax-Palatka Farms LLC, recently donated $100,000 to the Friends of Wilton Simpson PAC.
It’s nice to see these companies devoting themselves to the democratic process. I’m sure that handing over wads of cash to the state agriculture commissioner has absolutely nothing to do with them trying to smooth their path toward development (nudge nudge, wink wink).
I called and sent emails to various lobbyists, corporate agents, and others who might be able to unveil what these companies have planned.
Alas, no one responded, so I was unable to find out why our fine legislators seem so eager to tie the fate of our state to the wishes of people from Texas and New York.
I am hopeful, though, that the fancy gift wrap holding these bills together will come unraveled before legislators pass them into law. Otherwise, I know a lot of folks all over the state who’ll be fit to be tied.
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