A Leon County circuit judge on Friday refused to block a new law that stops cities and counties from approving "more restrictive or burdensome" changes to growth plans but allowed a legal challenge to the wide-ranging measure to proceed.
The prohibition on growth-plan changes was included this spring in a bill (SB 180) that lawmakers said would help the state recover from the 2024 hurricanes. The law, signed in June by Gov. Ron DeSantis, effectively freezes local land-development regulations and comprehensive plans through Oct. 1, 2027, and was made retroactive to Aug. 1, 2024.
Judge Angela Dempsey held a hearing Friday in a lawsuit filed by 25 cities and counties, who are seeking a preliminary injunction to block the law. The local governments’ case was consolidated with a lawsuit filed by 1000 Friends of Florida and Orange County resident Rachel Hildebrand.
Defendants in the cases are Department of Commerce Secretary J. Alex Kelly, Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie, Department of Revenue Executive Director Jim Zingale and state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia. The lawsuits said those state officials have roles in carrying out the law or in local-government money.
The Florida Home Builders Association and one of its members, Northwest Florida builder Alton Lister, this week joined the legal battle to help defend the state law.
During Friday’s hearing, lawyers for the state officials and the home builders asked Dempsey to dismiss the case and to reject the request for a preliminary injunction, arguing in part that the plaintiffs lack “standing” to challenge the law.
Jason Gonzalez, who represents the state, argued that a concept known as the “public official standing doctrine” barred the cities and counties from challenging the constitutionality of the law.
“We do not allow executive branch agencies or local governments to come in and challenge legislation that affects their duties because they would be dipping into their deep well of taxpayer money and tying up the legislation that the people have their elected representatives enact,” Gonzalez, an attorney with the Lawson Huck Gonzalez, PLLC firm, said.
But Jamie Cole, who represents the local governments, maintained that the 2025 law violates “very specific limitations” in the state Constitution requiring laws to adhere to a single subject.
“We are here today asking you to exercise your role as a member of the judicial branch to ensure that the legislature abides by certain limitations that the people of Florida have placed in the Constitution on the legislature,” Cole argued.
The lawsuit focuses on a section of the bill that prohibits local governments from proposing or adopting “more restrictive or burdensome” amendments to comprehensive plans or land development regulations. Any resident or business owner may file suit to enforce the section.
The section applies to governments that were placed under federal disaster declarations from hurricanes Debbie, Helene or Milton in 2024. All 67 of Florida’s counties were listed in at least one of the three declarations.
The growth-management restriction was added on the last day of the legislative session to the emergency-management bill, Cole told the judge.
He called the addition an example of unlawful “logrolling,” in which legislators attached a “politically charged” issue to a more popular measure dealing with hurricane recovery.
Cole said the restriction is causing confusion for counties and cities, in part, because the law applies retroactively.
“The state is basically going back in time. They’re going back to August 2024 and saying, yes, city, you had the power to enact this at the time under your home rule powers because there was no conflicting legislation, but we’re going to go back in time and pretend that you didn’t have the power to do it then,” Cole argued. “It’s unclear what the impact of that is.”
Dempsey sided with the state and the home builders and refused to block the law.
“Obviously, the temporary injunction is an extraordinary and drastic remedy that should be sparingly granted …,” Dempsey said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to grant a temporary injunction in this case.”
The judge, however, allowed the case to advance — at least for now. Dempsey asked attorneys to submit proposed orders by Jan. 16 addressing the request to dismiss the lawsuit. Dempsey also is considering whether to allow 1000 Friends of Florida to join the lawsuit.
In the motion to intervene filed Tuesday, the home builders argued that the attempt to block the bill “would greatly (and negatively) affect ongoing work of the association’s members and affiliates throughout the state.”
“Increased red tape, costs and delays are just some of the cascading effects of the relief plaintiffs seek (and to which they’re not entitled),” the motion said.
Speaking to The News Service of Florida following the hearing, Cole said he remained optimistic that Dempsey would allow the case to proceed and that “the constitutional infirmities will be properly addressed.”
Lawyers for the counties and cities also contend that the section of the law prohibiting “more restrictive or burdensome” regulations is unclear.
“More restrictive or burdensome for who? The law doesn’t actually say,” Cole said.
As an example, Cole said, a local regulation that eases the ability to build high-density apartment complexes would be less restrictive for developers.
“But isn’t it more burdensome for residents who now have to deal with higher density, more traffic, more taxes on public resources. More restrictive or burdensome than what, and for who?” he said.
Local governments also are unsure if they have to repeal ordinances on the books that could conflict with the law, according to Cole.
“People are bringing claims and filing lawsuits against them under unclear legal obligations,” he added.
