The law limits local governments’ ability to curtail development.
By Alice Herman/Suncoast Searchlight
Original Air Date: November 14, 2025
Host: Florida’s SB 180, a law meant to speed post-storm rebuilding, is raising alarms. Critics say it goes too far, taking away local governments’ ability to regulate development, and other recent measures affecting wetlands and rural growth have added to the tension. From conservative activists to conservationists, a wide range of voices are pushing back, Alice Herman of Suncoast Searchlight reports.
Alice Herman: The law, called SB 180, was created to help homeowners rebuild quickly after storms. But a provision in the law pre-empts local governments from regulating development. That has led to backlash, deepening a rift between grassroots conservatives and the elected Republicans who represent them in Tallahassee. The issue has also united a broad range of political groups including libertarians, MAGA activists, conservationists, blue-leaning municipalities and good-government groups who say the law favors developers over communities.
That tension is salient on Florida’s Suncoast, where conservative activists expressed outrage toward State Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, who inserted the language preempting local building regulations into the law through a last-minute amendment.
Ken Schneier
Ken Schneier: I term out in March, so this is likely my last chance to address this delegation. For the first time, I’m not here today to ask for money. And the hurricanes cost our town about $30 million and our citizens almost a quarter of a billion, so we’d like some money to continue to fix things, but I need to speak to a larger issue in my last chance with you folks. In recent years, the relationship between Tallahassee and Florida’s local governments has deteriorated beyond recognition. Each session becomes, in large part, a war zone. Without debating what it means to be a home rule state, it’s clear to anyone watching that major component of each year’s agenda, both for the legislature and the governor, is to restrict the role of local governments—to hamper the ability of those governments to fact act for what is, in their view, the best interest of their neighbors. One irony of this situation is that a key premise for the powers that be—my party, by the way—has always been that the best government is the government closest to the people. Tallahassee constantly fights this battle on its behalf with Washington, but when it looks downstream to our cities and counties, it seems to lose the thread.
AH: That was Ken Schneier. He’s a Republican mayor who spoke at the Sarasota County legislative delegation meeting on Thursday. Schneier cited SB 180 as a key example of what he sees as encroachment by the state into the affairs of local governments.
He’s one of many local Republican officials and activists concerned.
In ruby-red Manatee County, local officials have tried to push back, too.
Photo by Brandon Spencer, Spectrum News 13
A slate of Republican commissioners there swept into office last year on promises to rein in sprawl. But when they tried this summer to strengthen wetlands protections and limit growth in rural areas, Tallahassee stepped in. The state’s Department of Commerce warned their proposals would violate the new law preempting local control over development. The board shelved the vote.
Since then, the county has joined a lawsuit against the state challenging the law’s constitutionality.
All this comes at a critical moment. There are just 12 months before the November 2026 elections, when voters will choose a new governor and Republicans will seek to defend a broad legislative majority.
And laws like SB 180 may emerge as critical issues for voters.
For Suncoast Searchlight, this is Alice Herman.
To read the full report, visit suncoastsearchlight.org/home-rule-fight-over-floridas-sb-180-exposes-republican-rift.
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