PHOTO BY WALTER MARTIN VIA UNSPLASH.COM
A sweeping new law effectively halting changes to local land-use and comprehensive-plan rules is prompting vocal resistance from cities and counties across Florida, including the mayor of Mount Dora, who says the legislation cuts off residents’ ability to shape how their communities grow.
Signed into law as part of Senate Bill 180 in June 2025, the statute prohibits cities and counties from adopting any land-use regulation deemed “more restrictive or burdensome” than existing rules. The freeze runs through October 1, 2027, and was made effective retroactively to August 1, 2024. The law was positioned as a way to accelerate hurricane-recovery rebuilding, but critics say it far exceeds that purpose and undermines long-standing local planning authority.
Over 25 cities and counties joined a lawsuit filed by advocacy group 1000 Friends of Florida challenging the law’s constitutionality, arguing it infringes on local home-rule powers and violates due-process protections. The impact is unfolding now: in one case, the state rejected a comprehensive plan amendment because it ran afoul of the new law’s “no more restrictive” rule.
Planning officials across Central Florida say the timing couldn’t be worse: communities still recovering from hurricanes are now barred not only from rebuilding stronger, but from strengthening codes, wetlands protections, and development policies that were already in motion.
For Orange County, one major casualty is its “Vision 2050” plan, a comprehensive blueprint years in the making to guide growth, protect rural areas, and coordinate infrastructure in a sustainable way over the next 25 years. The county says SB 180 invalidated its plan and froze its next steps.
As SB 180 moves toward a likely 2026 revision effort, the spotlight remains on how cities and counties enforce and respond to the law in the meantime. whether by pressing legal action, delaying updates, or scrambling to retrofit protections under existing rules.
