SCCF provides legislative update on Week 7
With just two weeks remaining in the 2021 legislative session, which is scheduled to end on April 30, bills that have passed through their first few committees with little opposition are sailing through their third and final committees and being released to the Senate and House floors for final passage. This leaves the more contentious or complicated bills to be debated in their final committees this week with committee meetings being scheduled to last all day.
Bills of interest that advanced last week:
– Growth Management: HB 421 and HB 1101 — Relief from Burdens on Real Property Rights were presented together as a combined bill package. These bills propose to provide “clarifications” of definitions as they apply to the Bert J. Harris Property Rights Protection Act, but opponents of this bill point out that the clarifications provide an expanded scope by defining “government actions” allowing property owners to seek protections back to the time of adoption of any ordinance, resolution, rule or policy rather than at the point of enforcement as it is now. These bills will have a large impact on local comprehensive land use planning efforts and the ability to protect natural resources. In addition, these bills could affect local planning efforts to address coastal resiliency and the policies needed to achieve those goals. These bills passed by a vote of 14-5 and move next to a vote by the full House. The similar Senate version, SB 1876, was on its last committee stop in Rules on April 20. These bills were the focus of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s Action Alert on April 14 labeled “Oppose Harmful Land Use Bills.” Thank you to all that contacted your legislators to voice concerns about these harmful bills.
– Ecosystem Restoration: HB 783 — Racketeering of Aquatic and Wild Animal Life was also presented in House Judiciary on April 15. HB 783 revises the definition of the term “racketeering activity” to include certain actions relating to wild animal life, freshwater aquatic life, and marine life. There was no opposition to this bill and it passed in its last committee stop 18-0. This bill makes its way to the full House for a vote, while the identical Senate version, SB 776, has already passed the full Senate and is messages to the House.
n Water Quality/Growth Management: After passing the full Senate, SB 100-Highway Projects (MCORES partial repeal) was placed on the House Appropriations Committee on April 15 and put on the agenda for April 16. The Senate Bill was voted on favorably by the House Appropriations Committee and has already been added to the second reading calendar for the full House. This bill is positive news for Southwest Florida’s environment, but continues to call for toll road expansions in the northern and central corridors of Florida with potential impacts to pristine natural areas in other parts of the state. While this iteration of the bill has a positive outcome for Southwest Florida, the SCCF continues to advocate for strong growth management policies to protect our dwindling and threatened natural resources throughout the state.
For updates, check the SCCF Legislative Tracker at www.sccf.org/our-work/environmental-policy.
Holly Schwartz is environmental policy assistant for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. Founded in 1967, the SCCF is dedicated to the conservation of coastal habitats and aquatic resources on Sanibel and Captiva and in the surrounding watershed. For more information, visit www.sccf.org.