Subject: ALERT: Urge Governor DeSantis to Veto SB 540
Stop this attack on citizens' planning rights
This afternoon the Florida House dealt a devastating blow to citizens’ planning rights and endangered the future of Everglades restoration by passing SB 540. This legislation will soon be forwarded to Governor DeSantis for his signature and 1000 Friends has requested he VETO SB 540. Â
We ask that you sign the petition urging Governor DeSantis to VETO SB 540.
https://1000fof.org/veto-sb-540-petition/
(You may also contact him at 850-717-9337 or GovernorRon.DeSantis@eog.myflorida.com
SB 540 would:
    *  Deal a devastating and permanent blow to effective citizen engagement in the planning process by threatening ordinary Floridians with paying the attorney fees and costs of local governments and developers.Â
    *  Prevent enforcement of local growth plans which are created with citizen input and adopted by their elected representatives. Â
    *  Pave the way for fiscally and environmentally irresponsible sprawl by preventing citizens from challenging legally flawed local government planning decisions. Â
    *  Endanger the multibillion-dollar taxpayer funded effort to restore the Everglades by removing an avenue to challenge environmentally unsustainable development in the region. Â
SB 540 would threaten ordinary Floridians with financial ruin for exercising their right to legally challenge amendments that conflict with their communities’ comprehensive plans — their blueprints for sustainable growth. Floridians who lost such challenges could be forced to pay the attorney fees and costs of the prevailing local government and any developers that chose to intervene.
The risk of incurring this five- or six-figure expense would virtually eliminate citizen challenges, a crucial check on growth under Florida’s community planning process. This loss would be especially dangerous for the Everglades, where a wave of development proposals would undermine the multibillion-dollar taxpayer funded restoration.
Governor DeSantis began this year with an executive order that called for improvements to the comprehensive planning process to ensure sustainable growth and protect natural resources, including the Everglades. SB 540 would do just the opposite. We urge you to join us in calling for a veto:
Please sign the petition urging Governor DeSantis to VETO SB 540.
(You may also contact him at 850-717-9337 GovernorRon.DeSantis@eog.myflorida.com
We appreciate your support on this critical issue
Background:
SB 540 would threaten ordinary Floridians with financial ruin for exercising their right to legally challenge amendments that they believe conflict with comprehensive plans — the blueprints for growth created with citizen input in their communities. Because comprehensive plans are typically amended to pave the way for expanded development, this bill would eliminate a crucial check on growth in Florida’s community planning process, dealing a devastating blow to effective citizen engagement.
If this bill becomes law, citizens who exercise their right to legally challenge amendments to their communities’ comprehensive plans and lose could get clobbered with the expense of covering the attorney fees and costs for the winning side, which would include the local government and could also include any other parties who chose to intervene in the case. It’s not unusual for developers to intervene, hiring lawyers at $600-$800 an hour and racking up tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars defending comprehensive plan amendments intended to greenlight their developments. The practical impact of this enormous financial risk would be to put an end to citizen challenges, removing the only effective enforcement mechanism for comprehensive plans.
This bill would be especially damaging to the multibillion-dollar taxpayer-funded effort to restore the Everglades; developers have proposed a series of comprehensive plan amendments in Miami-Dade County to build major developments on land needed to restore the River of Grass. But it would have dire consequences for water quality, traffic congestion and other environmental and quality of life issues throughout Florida.   Without feasible citizen challenges as a check, unsustainable developments permitted by legally flawed amendments to comprehensive plans might very well come to pass.
Good community planning requires citizen engagement in all steps of the process, from the visioning and plan-making phase to the application and enforcement of those comprehensive plans. The timing couldn’t be worse for a bill that would stifle citizen engagement in planning for the future of their communities, when Florida is adding at least 1,000 residents a day and sea level rise, flooding and stronger storms demand more thoughtful planning.  Â
Please join us in urging Governor DeSantis to veto SB 540 now.Â
https://1000fof.org/veto-sb-540-petition/
Please sign the petition urging Governor DeSantis to VETO SB 540.
(You may also contact him at850-717-9337orGovernorRon.DeSantis@eog.myflorida.com)
I sent email but where do we sign petition?