2026 Legislative Session

The Budget

This year’s budget shortchanged land conservation. In 2023, lawmakers committed to spending at least $100 million a year on Florida Forever, the state’s premier program for buying and protecting natural land. This year they violated their commitment by failing to provide any new funding for Florida Forever. Instead, they cut into funds allocated in 2023 for Florida Forever but not yet spent, redirecting $225 million to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program (RFLPP), which purchases development rights from farmers but leaves that property in private hands. They provided an additional $200 million in new funding for the RFLPP, raising the total investment in that program to $425 million.

We support the RFLPP. Most unprotected land in the Florida Wildlife Corridor is farmland, and needs saving from encroaching development threats. However, the state needs both programs: Rural and Family Lands to protect farmland, and Florida Forever to protect other high-priority natural areas and to provide public land for the parks and conservation areas Floridians can visit and enjoy.

Elsewhere, lawmakers directed more than $500 million to Everglades restoration and $50 million to springs restoration, the latter the bare minimum required by law. Affordable housing fared better: the budget fully funds the state’s affordable housing trust funds at about $235 million, the sixth consecutive year those funds have not been diverted to other purposes.

Community planning

Our top priority was scaling back the damage from 2025’s SB 180, the sweeping law that freezes local governments’ ability to strengthen community planning regulations. The closest thing to a fix, SB 840 (Sen. Nick DiCeglie), would have narrowed the law’s reach, ended its retroactive freeze more than a year early, and limited future freezes to genuine hurricane rebuilding. It cleared every Senate committee and passed the Senate unanimously — but the House refused to take it up, and more than 22,000 emails from our members since December couldn’t move them. It was the biggest letdown of the session, and we’ll be back on it in 2027.

In good news, the session’s worst large-scale development idea failed. HB 299 / SB 354 would have created “Blue Ribbon Projects” — developments of 15,000-plus acres that could bypass local growth plans and meaningful public engagement and lock in vested rights for decades. The bills cleared every committee but stalled over too many unanswered questions.  Given the lobbying force behind them, we expect the concept back in 2027.

Two other bills were reworked before passing. HB 399 / SB 208 shed its most damaging provisions — a study tilted toward dismantling urban growth boundaries and a measure to void local supermajority requirements for development approvals — and now ties permit fees to the cost of services. More troubling, “Agricultural Enclaves” (SB 686 / HB 691) lets a farmland parcel win automatic “certification” if a local government doesn’t rule within 90 days, after which the owner can develop their farmland to a neighboring parcel’s entitlements — streamlining approval for growth a community might otherwise reject. The enclave provisions sunset in 2027.

Land Conservation

One of the session’s best outcomes in this area was the passage of “Conservation Lands” HB 441 / SB 546(Rep. Kim Kendall / Sen. Debbie Mayfield), which requires public notice and state review before conservation land can be sold or swapped, and passed both chambers unanimously. The biggest disappointment was the Ocklawaha River restoration bills (SB 1066/ HB 981), which would have initiated planning to breach the Rodman Reservoir dam, the last remnant of a discredited and destructive plan to cut a canal through north Florida. It passed the House 107-3 and cleared three Senate committees but was stymied before reaching the Senate for a floor vote.

Water

Water policy that passed this session centered on biosolids, the residuals from sewage wastewater treatment. Land application of biosolids pollutes waterways in Florida, especially in the St. Johns River Basin. SB 1294/ HB 1245 add new disposal limits and monitoring rules for land application. A 1000 Friends’ report on the environmental impacts of land application of biosolids helped make the case for the bills.

Affordable housing

This year’s marquee bill, Live Local 4.0 (HB 1389), passed. It’s the fourth revision of the 2023 Live Local Act, and it expands development exemptions: government-owned and religious-institution properties are now eligible regardless of underlying zoning, and local height, setback limits are preempted for qualifying projects. New carve-outs protect environmentally sensitive lands like the Everglades and the Wekiva River.

Several housing bills we tracked died and will likely return in 2027: the accessory dwelling unit bill (HB 313 / SB 48), which stalled over short-term-rental concerns; transit-oriented development bills (HB 1183 / HB 1342); and the Florida Starter Homes Act (SB 948). On the budget side, lawmakers maintained full funding for the state’s affordable housing trust funds.

Resilience

After several sessions of effort, a bill promoting nature-based approaches to coastal resilience finally passed in SB 302 (Sen. Garcia / Rep. Mooney), directing FDEP to set statewide guidelines for projects like living shorelines and also strengthening protection of the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve.

Transportation and Data Centers

The transportation bills we tracked, including measures on concurrency and a regional rapid-rail compact, did not advance. On data centers, SB 484 passed, confirming local control for permitting and comprehensive-planning requirements for hyperscale facilities, protecting consumers from paying higher electricity from neighboring centers, and prohibiting approvals that damage local water supplies.