A measure to help with hurricane preparedness and response continued moving forward Thursday in the Florida House, a day after the Senate passed its version.
The House Transportation & Economic Development Budget Subcommittee on Thursday backed a wide-ranging measure (HB 1535) that includes addressing local government responsibilities about issues such as construction regulations and debris removal after storms. The bill also would set rules about making changes to deal with election disruptions.
Bill sponsor Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, said she expects her proposal to pick up additional suggestions before it goes to the House State Affairs Committee. If it clears that committee, it would be ready to go to the full House.
McFarland’s bill and the Senate version (SB 180), sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, include differences.
“I hope that we have very different bills, because it will mean that we have a host of different ideas,” McFarland said after Thursday’s meeting. “And I really look forward to sitting down with the senator and combining all of our ideas into the biggest, best bill that we can.”
The Senate unanimously passed its version, which DiCeglie said is focused on protecting communities from future disasters, in part, by dealing in advance with issues such as debris management and permitting.
“I think giving local governments those tools to be prepared to work directly with the Division of Emergency Management is going to go a long way in making sure that they're prepared,” DiCeglie said. “You know, they ask all of us as residents to make sure that we have our water, we have our flashlights, we have our batteries, all of those things that we do have, hopefully before June 1 of every year. This is the same thing for local governments.”
The Senate measure, like the House bill, would require local governments to annually set in advance at least one debris-management site; to develop plans for businesses and homeowners about post-storm permitting processes; to establish what are known as mutual-aid agreements to bring in help from elsewhere; and to set plans for staffing after storms.
Local governments would also be prohibited from increasing building permit and inspection fees for 180 days after emergencies are declared for hurricanes or tropical storms.
The Senate bill would require the Department of Environmental Protection to waive or reduce local financial match requirements for beach-renourishment projects needed because of damage in 2024 from hurricanes Debby, Helene or Milton.
With hurricane season running from June 1 through Nov. 30 — the thick of election seasons in Florida — lawmakers also are dealing with issues such as the need to change polling places because of storm damage.
After revisions were made to the House bill Thursday, county elections supervisors could request approval from the secretary of state to change locations of early voting sites; extend early voting to the day before elections; allow election-day voting at early voting sites; send vote-by-mail ballots to displaced people; and waive some restrictions on poll workers.
“Today, what happens is, that happens through an emergency declarative order,” McFarland said. “What we’d like to allow is the supervisor, whose closest, they know the sidewalks outside the precincts, we want to empower that supervisor to come up with that plan.”
The House bill also would seek to prevent a repeat of an incident where a crane collapsed into a St. Petersburg office building when Hurricane Milton slammed into the area last year.
The bill would require that 24 hours before anticipated hurricane impacts, all hoisting equipment would have to be secured to comply with manufacturer recommendations, which could include removing advertising, laying down fixed booms and setting towers in a “weathervane position.”
Lawmakers also could make changes to try to help homeowners rebuild after storms.
Under the House bill, for example, residents would be allowed to rebuild homesteaded property up to 130% larger than the pre-hurricane “footprint” without facing increases in their taxable property values.
Local governments, school districts and special districts would also be prohibited from imposing impact fees when rebuilding after storms doesn’t change previous land-use designations.
Also, the bill would prohibit counties under federal disaster declarations after last year’s hurricanes from imposing moratoriums that would affect rebuilding storm-damaged properties through Oct. 1, 2027.
