The Sarasota County Commissioner calls the law ‘pre-emption to a very high degree’.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: January 28, 2026
Host: Florida’s Live Local Act is meant to produce affordable housing. But one Sarasota County Commissioner has problems with that law. Ramon Lopez has that story.
Ramon Lopez: Florida’s Live Local Act was passed in 2023 and amended last year. Its stated purpose is to increase the state’s inventory of affordable housing by streamlining the approval process for zoning.
But the reality, says Sarasota County Commissioner Joe Neunder and Susan Schoettle, a vocal private practice attorney and controlled growth advocate, is that it strips local government bodies and county residents of any role in reviewing projects pushed by real estate developers. They agreed that it represents another pre-emption of local authority. Schoettle called it a “weapon of mass destruction.”
Susan Schoettle
Susan Schoettle: This is the nuclear bomb that’s hidden in the sand, and it was added last year. “A parcel zoned to permit such uses by right without the requirement of a special exception,” blah blah blah, “irrespective of the local land development regulation’s listed category or title.”
RL: Neunder echoed her concerns when they briefed the Nokomis Area Civic Association (NACA) Monday night.
Joe Neunder
Joe Neunder: It’s about freedom of information and public transparency. I don’t think I could have put it any more eloquently, Susan, than what you said about home rule erosion and government getting into what needs to be about the people. Local government, whether it’s a city, town or county should be about elected officials serving the residents that they live next to each and every day.
RL: Simply stated, under the Live Local Act, real estate developers that pledge to rent at least 40 percent of their units to people earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income would largely be exempt from local regulations of height, density and zoning limits. And they would be entitled to speedy administrative approval.
JN: They could be turning dirt, and none of us would know what is going on
RL: Bill Cantrell, head of the Nokomis Civic Association, said Live Local’s well-funded special interests are shifting power away from local communities.
When asked who pushed for the act in Tallahassee, Neunder said:
JN: Politics up in Tallahassee is a very nebulous world—it’s very difficult to really know who’s pushing it—but obviously you can look at this and read it and probably come up with some common sense ideas—what sector of our economy it’s pushing. Without giving it away, this is going to potentially fundamentally change the landscape of our community.
RL: He said this is “pre-emption to a very high degree.” He predicted that the state law will probably be challenged in court. Neunder also said developers will probably test it as well, for sought-after benefits.
Two significant local projects in size, scope and scale come to mind: 8893 Fruitville, involving 24 acres and 352 units, and 412 Tatum, covering a whopping 206 acres and 2,259 residential units.
Neunder said proposed Senate Bill 208 is a new threat.
JN: The one that you really want to focus on is this one right here. Senate Bill 208. That is the one that we think will have even more meaningful effect on the ability of local government to do what the people want our local elected officials to do. It is, in fact, the erosion of home rule.
RL: He said the county commissioners last week voted unanimously to direct staffers to make the county’s handling of applications as transparent as possible.
Schoettle said voters need to push state legislators to rein in Live Local, or else. She also said there must be some developers that still have a shred of decency left. That remark drew laughter from the audience.
NACA’s Bill Cantrell said uncontrolled building height is emerging as a problem because of Live Local.
Bill Cantrell: If you wake up one day and there’s a big 35-story apartment building right on top of you…
This sounds extreme, but it’s reality, folks. It really is.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
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