Bulldozing historic St. Augustine and Miami art deco

Looks like some GOP legislators want to get away from the culture war and to focus on earning their bribes in the remainder of the session. In the claimed cause of climate change resiliency.

More Tallahassee preemption of Home Rule, the same impulse that motivated Tampa’s tree protection


A pair of related bills rapidly advancing through the Florida Legislature would eviscerate protections for historic buildings and districts in coastal areas across the state, allowing property owners and developers to bypass local regulations and bulldoze and redevelop much of Miami Beach, among many other places.

That would include the iconic Art Deco hotel row on Ocean Drive, as well as famed neighborhoods like Key West’s Old Town, the town of Palm Beach and Fernandina Beach.

The bills, SB 1317 and HB 1346, sponsored by Republicans Sen. Bryan Avila and Rep. Spencer Roach, are causing alarm among preservationists and municipal officials statewide, including shocked elected officials in St. Augustine — the oldest city in the United States — as they realize their potentially devastating implications. One preservation group in Miami Beach called the legislation “the end of historic preservation in coastal Florida.” Another critic likened it to “an atom bomb.”




Protection for historic coastal properties could be gutted under new Florida bills
Protection for historic coastal properties could be gutted under new Florida bills - Tampa Bay Times

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Public safety is the ruse, nothing more

 

There can be a lot of problems in application of local standards, especially historical standards, but my major point is that the state should never preempt local standards. We have that in Tampa with Ybor City. And a lot of complications are involved in trying to draft and apply these standards, which may at least partially explain seemingly nonsensical results

Also, Saint Augustine is an especially sensitive issue, at least to me, because of the fact that it’s so often overlooked when we talk about Europeans in what is now the United States. We always default to Virginia and the English.

 

From today's Florida Politics text service, an interesting note on preemption. Won't pass, but I love it


Amendments getting chippy -

An amendment to a bill allowing businesses to local governments to overturn local ordinances would require a public shaming of DeSantis and legislative Republicans.

Filed by Democratic Rep. Yvonne Hinson, the text would require a newspaper ad as well as a mailer to every voter saying: "BY THE ORDER OF GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS AND THE MAJORITY OF THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE, DESPITE APPROVAL BY LOCAL, DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED LEADERS, THE STATE OF FLORIDA HAS DETERMINED THIS LOCAL ORDINANCE IS NOW NULL AND VOID."

Not going to happen, but funny nonetheless.

 

Good idea, except it invites further retribution

 

More state preemption of local ordinances, this one to prevent fertilizer runoff


TALLAHASSEE — Florida legislators are poised to block one of the most effective tools local governments say they have to protect water quality in their communities in the face of red tide and blue-green algae outbreaks by banning rainy season restrictions on fertilizer use.

A measure quietly tucked into a budget proposal over the weekend would prohibit at least 117 local governments from “adopting or amending a fertilizer management ordinance” during the 2023-24 budget year, requiring them to rely on less restrictive regulations developed by the University of Florida, which are supported by the state’s phosphate industry, the producers of fertilizer.

Legislative leaders tentatively agreed to a $116 billion budget on Monday and, with no public debate or discussion, included the fertilizer language that emerged late Sunday.

It is the latest proposal to emerge in a legislative session that has fast-tracked industry-friendly bills aimed at removing local control and public input over emotionally charged environmental and development issues.

Florida lawmakers eye ban on fertilizer use restrictions
Florida lawmakers eye ban on fertilizer use restrictions - Tampa Bay Times

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Thanks. very informative. My knowledge on the subject, such as it is, is purely derivative. My buddy who is an oceanographer tells me about the impact of runoff, but I have knowledge of design restraints, regs., etc.