Last Chance for Cocktails & Conservation, Legislative Session report more news!
- IRNA
- 7 hours ago
- 10 min read
Please take this moment to sign up!
The deadline to buy tickets is tomorrow (Sunday).
Join us on February 25 at 5 PM for a special presentation by Dr. Duane DeFreese, Executive Director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program (One Lagoon), as he shares new insights into the economic importance of the Indian River Lagoon.
With combined federal funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and NOAA, the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program has released its 2025 Economic Valuation Update. Conducted by The Balmoral Group, this research highlights how the lagoon supports local jobs, tourism, property values, and our overall quality of life. Discover why restoring and protecting the Indian River Lagoon needs to be both an environmental and economic priority.
Tickets are $40 per person and include admission to the program, passed hors d’oeuvres, and beer and wine. We thank you for your additional support to cover our costs as you check out. RSVPs are required.
If you can not purchase tickets online for some reason please reach out to us at Info@IndianRiverNA.com.
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Join the IRNA in building a stronger voice for our community. Your support empowers us to safeguard our natural resources, demand transparency from elected officials, and champion the changes we need to see—together, we can create lasting impact.
Florida's 2026 Legislative Session: Who Are They Working For?
A bit past the halfway mark of the 2026 Florida legislative session, a troubling picture has come into focus. While lawmakers in Tallahassee talk about affordability and growth, the bills actually moving through committees tell a different story. A story of systematic dismantling of local planning authority, weakened environmental protections, and sweetheart deals for large-scale developers. The people of Florida, the ones who live in these communities, drink the water, and pay the taxes, are being sold out to special interests.
The Assault on Home Rule Continues
The most infuriating thread running through this session is the legislature's relentless push to strip local governments of their planning authority. Bill after bill would preempt local decision-making, replacing it with one-size-fits-all mandates from Tallahassee (or worse, with administrative rubber stamps that cut the public out entirely.)
Let's start with the unfinished business of Senate Bill 180 from last session, which imposed sweeping retroactive and prospective prohibitions on local land use regulations. Thousands of Floridians wrote letters, testified at delegation meetings, and sent emails demanding a fix. Legislators acknowledged they were hearing from constituents. Some even pledged to act. And yet here we are: the House has refused to even schedule a hearing on the fix bills. Our calls and emails are going out, but they are not being listened to.
Meanwhile, House Bill 1465 doubles down on the worst provisions of SB 180, broadening definitions, expanding legal exposure for local governments, and requiring permits based on whatever less-restrictive regulations happened to be in place before a hurricane. The message from certain legislators is clear: they heard you, and they don't care.
Then there's House Bill 399, which would invalidate any local provision requiring a supermajority vote on land use changes. We talked about this one before because it orders a study of the impact of removing urban service/growth boundaries entirely, laying the groundwork for future sessions to blow them up. And the so-called "Blue Ribbon Projects" bills (House Bill 299 and Senate Bill 354) would allow developments of 10,000 acres or more to be approved with almost no meaningful public input, ridiculously compressed review timelines, no required future land use or zoning changes.
Agricultural enclave bills (Senate/House) would give property owners a fast track to residential development entitlements with an automatic approval shot clock, if the local government doesn't act within 90 days, the certification happens anyway. The Starter Homes Act expansion (Senate/House) would override local density, design, and parking controls with statewide minimums. Multiple affordable housing bills, however well-intentioned in their goals, would steamroll local comprehensive plans and the communities that spent years developing them.
To be clear: no one is arguing that every local government has gotten housing policy right. Some have not done nearly enough. But these bills would penalize the local governments that have been forward-thinking (places like St. Pete, Tampa, Crestview, and Crystal River) that have taken promising initiatives and force everyone to start over under Tallahassee's rules.
Environmental Protections Going Nowhere
On the water quality front, the legislature is doing remarkably little. Bills that would address PFAS contamination (the "forever chemicals" showing up in our water) haven't even gotten their first committee hearings, despite extensive committee discussion of the problem. A beach water testing bill that passed overwhelmingly last session was vetoed by the governor, and this year's version isn't moving either. Bills to improve wastewater treatment facility reporting and oversight? (Senate/House) Not moving. A bill based on expert recommendations for addressing blue-green algae and water quality crises? Dead on arrival without a House companion.
The water management district land management review teams could be eliminated under one bill. (Senate/House) Another pair of bills would preempt local governments from regulating water quality and quantity, an idea so bad it keeps coming back from the dead every couple of years.
Vero gets savings surprise on new WTF (Hometown News TC) - Vero Beach officials realized over $440,000 in savings on the construction of a new $178 million water treatment facility by utilizing an owner-direct purchase process that exempts the city from paying taxes on equipment.
Florida drought fuels wildfires, prompting widespread burn bans (Sebastian Daily) - Florida forestry officials are urging residents to comply with widespread burn bans and exercise extreme caution as an early and severe drought triggers hundreds of wildfires across thousands of acres.
Manatee Stuck in Florida Storm Drain Showing Signs of Recovery After SeaWorld Rescued Him (Good News Network) - A juvenile male manatee is showing significant signs of improvement at a rehabilitation center after a multi-agency effort successfully freed the 410-pound mammal from a Melbourne Beach storm drain where it had likely sought refuge from cold water.
Sebastian approves Sembler Property grant agreement (Hometown News TC) - The Sebastian City Council unanimously approved a $1 million state grant agreement to pursue the purchase of the 1.3-acre Sembler property, aiming to expand the city's working waterfront and preserve a local oyster aquaculture nursery.
February 2026 Peligram (Pelican Island Audubon Society) - The February 2026 Peligram newsletter highlights local conservation efforts, youth nature camps, and a feature on invasive wild boars while urging members to oppose state legislation that threatens local environmental protections and home rule.
The Legislative Session, Continued
Next there are the conservation land grabs. The Department of Agriculture's omnibus bill (Senate/House) includes a provision that would require a state review of conservation lands purchased after 2023 for possible sale and conversion to agriculture. Let that sink in: land that was purchased with public money and promised for conservation could be sold off, with the proceeds going to the Department of Agriculture. While state parks and forests would be exempt, water management district lands and parcels managed through local agreements would not. This would potentially undermine Everglades restoration, Indian River Lagoon protection, and natural springs preservation. Another pair of bills would mandate cattle grazing on state conservation lands, despite documented risks of runoff, erosion, water contamination, and ecosystem disruption.
Last year, the legislature allocated a pathetic $18 million for Florida Forever, the state's premier land conservation program, even though the governor proposed $115 million and polling shows 89% of Floridians support spending at least $100 million annually. (Governor DeSantis also proposed $115 for this year as well, but we’ll see if that makes it out of the Legislature...) For perspective, $115 million represents roughly one penny for every ten dollars of state spending. We can't even manage that?
The Budget Black Hole
We don't even know what the budget looks like yet. The House and Senate have been unable to synchronize their releases, the two chambers are operating in silos (25 Senate-passed bills untouched by the House, 24 House-passed bills ignored by the Senate) and the apparent personal animosity between the governor and the House Speaker looms over everything.
The proposed property tax cuts, still taking shape in the House, would slash revenues that local governments depend on to provide public services and would sharply reduce funding for regional water management districts. And the state's own economists project deepening budget deficits in the years ahead.
Some Bright Spots, If You Squint
It's not all bad. There are bills worth supporting this session, and a few are actually moving.
A bipartisan bill (Senate/House) requiring more transparency and public notice for proposed sales or swaps of conservation land has cleared its committees without opposition. On data centers, Senator Avila's bill mandating local planning authority, utility cost accountability, and water usage oversight has made it through two committees and represents a thoughtful approach to an emerging land use challenge. Nature-based coastal resilience bills (Senate/House) are advancing, and legislation to designate coral reefs as critical natural infrastructure is moving in the Senate.
Some of the biosolids management bills (talked about in a previous newsletter) show genuine progress, with growing recognition that the state needs better monitoring and standards as it transitions away from Class B land application. And several of the affordable housing bills, while problematic in their current form, have sponsors who are reportedly open to working with stakeholders to address concerns about preemptions, a process worth engaging in.
The governor, to his credit, has proposed solid funding levels for several priorities: $115 million for Florida Forever, $200 million for Rural and Family Lands, $1.4 billion for restoration and water quality, and full funding of the affordable housing trust fund.
The Fundamental Problem
But the bright spots don't change the fundamental trajectory of this session. Bill after bill takes the community out of community planning. Administrative approvals replace public hearings. Statewide mandates replace local deliberation. Developer-friendly timelines replace meaningful review. And the public, a.k.a. the people who actually live in these communities, gets cut out of the process.
Florida's growth management system has been built over 40 years on a simple principle: that public scrutiny and public comment lead to better planning and communities that respond to the needs of their citizens. That principle is under sustained attack in Tallahassee, and the attackers have a supermajority in both chambers.
The session isn't over. There's still time to act, and the work of protecting community planning doesn't stop when the legislature adjourns. But halfway through, the message from the Capitol is hard to miss: the people writing and voting on these bills aren't working for you.
Your legislators need to hear from you now, while there's still time to change the trajectory of this session. Call them. Email them. Tell them to stop selling out Florida's communities to special interests and start representing the people who sent them to Tallahassee.
State Elected Officials Contact Information:
Sen. Erin Grall
Phone: (850) 487-5029
Email: Grall.Erin.Web@flsenate.gov
Address: 3209 Virginia Avenue, Suite A149, Fort Pierce, FL 34981
Rep. Robbie Brackett
Phone: (850) 717-5034
Address: Suite B2-203, 1801 27th Street, Vero Beach, FL 32960
Polk County approves nearly $2M contract for new well supply (Bay News 9) - Polk County officials have approved a $1.8 million well project to access the lower Floridan aquifer as a more sustainable water source to support rapid population growth and infrastructure demands in the northeast part of the county.
Just a Baseball’s Worth of Plastics Can Kill an Adult Manatee, New Analysis Warns (WebWire) - A new analysis by Ocean Conservancy warns that ingesting a volume of soft plastic equivalent to a single baseball carries a 50% chance of killing an adult manatee, highlighting a broader crisis where plastic pollution is proving lethal to Florida's sea turtles, dolphins, and seabirds.
‘Farm bill’ would let the governor auction off conservation land to agribusinesses (Substack) - Legislation moving through the Florida Capitol proposes to allow the state to sell off conservation lands to agribusinesses while simultaneously shifting hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental funding toward agricultural easements.
Alligator Alcatraz: Setting a dangerous precedent? (VoteWater.org) - Conservation groups argue that the state-led Alligator Alcatraz detention center bypasses critical federal environmental reviews, setting a dangerous precedent that could allow Florida to circumvent similar oversight on major Everglades restoration projects.
Landscaping Along Roads & Parking
I have to imagine that most of us don’t spend much time thinking about landscaping along roads and parking lots, but Indian River County’s Landscape & Buffer Ordinance (CH 926) makes sure roadsides and parking areas don’t look like vast seas of asphalt. The regulation requires trees, shrubs, and screening to break up pavement and create a greener streetscape.
Roadway Buffers And Frontage Planting
According to the ordinance, every project with road frontage must include a landscaped buffer along the entire length facing a thoroughfare plan road, local road, or exclusive driveway (driveways are excluded from the calculation). This buffer, typically 15–20 feet wide depending on the road type, requires a set number of canopy trees, understory trees, and shrubs/100 linear feet to create shade and visual separation from the street.
For example, along a thoroughfare plan road, a site might need about 4–5 canopy trees, 5–6 understory trees, and 50 shrubs/ 100 feet of frontage, ensuring the road edge feels like part of the landscape rather than a hard barrier. Freestanding signs get a small exemption from tree calculations, but the overall effect is a consistent green edge that softens the street view for drivers and neighbors.
Parking Lot Landscaping & Screening
Parking areas must include internal landscaping—think islands and peninsulas with trees—to break up large pavement expanses and provide shade for cars. A key feature is the required four-foot-high visual screen between parking and any adjacent roadway or driveway, using berms with shrubs, dense vegetative hedges, or similar features to hide the sea of parked vehicles from street view.
Shrubs for screening are planted on tight centers (24–30 inches) in offset rows for immediate density, and the screen must sit at least 2.5–4 feet above parking grade before occupancy. Visibility triangles at driveways are preserved so trees and shrubs don’t block sightlines, balancing safety with aesthetics.
Practical Takeaways For Projects
For developers, HOAs, and businesses, IRC’s Landscape & Buffer Ordinance considers roadway buffers and parking landscaping as non‑negotiable parts of site design that enhance curb appeal and functionality. Key steps include:
Plan the road buffer early with required tree and shrub counts based on frontage length.
Break up parking lots with interior islands containing canopy trees for shade.
Install roadway screening before occupancy to meet visual and code standards.
Done right, these requirements turn parking lots and road edges into attractive, shaded features that benefit users, neighbors, and the community’s overall look. Can you think of an area in IRC that showcases this portion of the rules?
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