A Number of Bills Pass Volume 1

In addition to the core growth management bill, a number of growth-related bills passed and will soon be on their way to the Governor. They include:

Waterfront Property HB 955 - would require local government to include provisions in the land use element to protect existing commercial and working waterfront properties.

Wind Protection - HB 835 - provides more guidance on wind protection in the building codes, still exempts the Panhandle except for beaches from more strict provisions of code.

Small Cities Community Development - HB 901 - allows DCA to include "project planning" as a category in which communities can compete for Block Grant funds.

Campus Master Planning - HB 517 - After a really bad start, which would effectively have gutted any ability of anyone to enforce the requirements of the statute and allowed Universities to put anything they want anywhere they want, it looks like this ended up being a really good bill that cleans up the process and allows a proper hearing and a DCA (rather than administration commission) Final Order.

I have to confess special interest in this bill, since I was the first person to actually appeal a final order of the Administration Commission under the old regime - which was simply unworkable. If the procedures in the new bill had been in place when my clients started the process in the case in which I was involved, the ultimate result would have been different, especially on the ground, where it matters most.