- July 12, 2025
Florida Senate Bill 180 — legislation that would prohibit local governments from implementing more restrictive development regulations through Oct. 1, 2027 — is ready to be reviewed by the governor.
If signed onto law, how will that impact Ormond Beach?
Planning Board member Al Jorczak posed this question during the board's meeting on Thursday, June 12. SB 180 was passed by the Senate and House on May 2.
Planning Director Steven Spraker explained that, if signed, municipalities would be preempted from altering wetland standards, floodplain standards and zoning uses to make them more restrictive. Municipalities would also be prohibited from declaring and imposing a moratorium following a hurricane.
Board Chair Doug Thomas said that the bill would essentially prevent local governments from slowing development.
"There's not much you can do to cut down on the growth because people are going to continue to come in here," Thomas said. "... So when people come up here and complain about how Ormond is growing, there's nothing that we can do about it other than obey the law."
Spraker pointed out that recent and future residential developments, such as Plantation Oaks and Ormond Crossings, are proposing densities lower than what their land use allows.
"So the development that you're getting in the undeveloped areas left in Ormond Beach are relatively low density," Spraker said. "It is development. It is taking vacant land and developing it. So those standards exist today and you really couldn't change those standards without compensating the property owner because you're taking some rights."
The city can, however, negotiate some development features like open space, recreation and conservation. That won't go away with SB 180.
While SB 180 passed 34-1 in the Senate and unanimously in the House, the bill has gained criticism from local officials as well as the Florida League of Cities. While originally a bill aimed at revising the state's emergency preparedness, it was later amended to include the local government restrictions.
At the Volusia County Council's meeting on May 20, the council asked staff to draft a letter requesting the governor veto the bill.
"This one is pretty egregious," County Council Chair Jeff Brower said at the May 20 meeting. "It's in a much needed bill for emergencies, but then it's tucked in at the very end."
Ormond Beach City Commissioner Lori Tolland called SB 180 "a bad bill" during the commission's meeting on May 20 as well. As the cities of New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater had already sent a letter to the governor asking him to veto the bill, she asked the commission if Ormond Beach could do the same.
Commissioners agreed, though Commission Travis Sargent pointed out that the bill had passed very easily in the House and Senate.
"I just have a feeling that this bill is going through," he said.
Tolland concurred.
"I know it's a very, very slim possibility, but I think he'll know what we stand for," she said.
