{"id":17567,"date":"2026-02-09T16:53:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/?p=17567"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:06:48","slug":"take-action-say-no-to-massive-sprawl-disguised-as-so-called-blue-ribbon-projects-and-say-yes-to-local-control-and-thoughtful-community-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/take-action-say-no-to-massive-sprawl-disguised-as-so-called-blue-ribbon-projects-and-say-yes-to-local-control-and-thoughtful-community-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Take action: Say no to massive sprawl disguised as so-called \u201cBlue Ribbon Projects\u201d and say yes to local control and thoughtful community planning!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SB 354<\/a> and HB 299,<\/a> Blue Ribbon Projects, are two bills making their way through the Florida House and Senate that would grant big landowners the right to ignore local land use controls and protections of rural areas. These bills would green-light large projects with little oversight and no public participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local comprehensive plans are created by the community, planning experts, and local stakeholders. These plans are the foundation of our community\u2019s character, and new developments must meet the standards set forth in the comprehensive plan. The Blue Ribbon Projects bill completely upends this foundational structure for large-scale development projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TAKE ACTION<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Blue Ribbon Projects could also put taxpayers at risk. Road networks and other infrastructure will be needed to support these sprawling developments. We know that development doesn\u2019t pay for itself, and local taxpayers \u2013 who will have no say in whether this sprawl should be approved \u2013 will be left paying for the creation and upkeep of these new facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bills limit local governments to just 60 days to determine whether new 10,000+acre projects meet not only local comprehensive plans, but also the bills\u2019 vague criteria. If a city or county can\u2019t meet that deadline, the project is automatically approved, and those development entitlements persist for 50 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the bills say these projects will be approved by local government administrators, not by the elected officials<\/strong>, effectively shutting the public out of the local planning process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this bill necessary? Absolutely NOT! There are tools already available in state law to allow for large-scale planning efforts, such as the ability for large landowners to create sector plans. These currently existing avenues for rural planning include full public participation, with the final decisions made, as they should be, by local elected officials during a public hearing to ensure that the sector plan is consistent with the local land use plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need you to contact legislators on the next committee stops for this bill. Those committees are the House Commerce Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development. Please let them know you want them to vote NO on this dangerous bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TAKE ACTION<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SB 354 and HB 299, Blue Ribbon Projects, are two bills making their way through the Florida House and Senate that would grant big landowners the right to ignore local land use controls…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":4094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17567"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17580,"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17567\/revisions\/17580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservancy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}