Bal Harbour will join a lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 180, a law that restricts local governments’ control over planning and land use regulations. It marks the village’s latest fight against state legislation restricting control, following its opposition to the Live Local Act.
More than two dozen cities are plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Florida, which was filed in Leon County in late September. The state law, titled “Emergencies,” was signed into law this summer. It bans local governments from passing “more restrictive or burdensome” comprehensive plan amendments, land development regulations, or procedures concerning review, approval, or issuance of site plans, development permits, or development orders starting on Aug. 1, 2024 until Oct. 1, 2027.
Municipalities argue that the law infringes on “home rule” authority over land use and zoning regulations. The village council voted to join the lawsuit at its meeting on Tuesday, following a discussion about the litigation at a September meeting. Each city that is participating in the lawsuit is paying a $10,000 flat fee for trial proceedings.
Other South Florida cities and counties fighting Senate Bill 180 include Fort Lauderdale, Homestead, Cutler Bay, Pinecrest, Palm Beach. Miami Shores, Weston, Pompano Beach and North Palm Beach.
“In order to engage in meaningful, long range planning for the future and regulation of development, to deal with changing circumstances and needs in your community, to respond to the requirements of chapter 163 for planning and zoning, you’re required, over time, to keep these things up to date, and these sections of the bill really stand in the way of being able to do that,” said attorney Susan Trevarthen, of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, at the September meeting. Trevarthen represents the village.
The bill was presented in the legislative session as an emergency management bill. A section of the legislation would strip cities of their powers in one-year increments every time that the local county falls within a hurricane disaster declaration and is within 100 miles of that storm’s track.
But SB 180 applies to all land use and planning amendments, regulations or procedures, even if they are not tied or related to hurricanes or other emergencies, according to one of the filings attached to the Bal harbour resolution.
“It’s important for us to participate in this, because I can see that it’s tangentially related to the other matter that we are dealing with Live Local and I don’t think we can sit on the sidelines,” said Bal Harbour Mayor Jeffrey P. Freimark at the Sept. 16 meeting.
Freimark was referring to the Live Local Act, a state law that incentivizes developers of workforce housing with height, density, tax and parking bonuses. The village has been tied up in litigation with Bal Harbour Shops owner Whitman Family Development over its planned redevelopment of a portion of the property into a Live Local project.
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