Westward Expansion: Is SB 686 a Back Door? We Did the Math
For years, when a developer showed up wanting to build on land the city hadn’t approved for building, the city had one word that ended the conversation. No.
It doesn’t work that way anymore — not for land that clears the formula SB 686 creates. Florida passed a law this year that gives certain landowners into something called “agricultural enclave” status:
- ¾ Farmland ringed on three-quarters of its edge by land already built — or already zoned for building.
- ¾ Or ringed three-quarters by a combination of an interstate highway and land the city has already marked for growth.
- ½ Or, on a smaller footprint — under 700 acres — half-ringed by land marked for growth.
: the landowner writes the city a letter claiming the status. The city has 30 days to check the math, 30 more to hold a hearing and say yes or no. Miss either deadline, and the land is certified whether anybody checked it or not.
And “check the math” is all it is. The city doesn’t get to weigh in on whether this is a good idea, whether the land can handle it, whether the neighbors want it. It can only check whether the numbers add up.
To be clear, the Florida Legislature created a process by which landowners can shove a development down the throat of a local government — and it could have been worse. Had SB 1014, a companion bill, passed, that government could have been forced to connect that development to its own water and sewer system. It died in the House in March. It’s possible it comes back next session.
So is SB 686 a backdoor to Westward Expansion?
No. We did the math.
We checked all 83 parcels in the old tract. Forty-seven of them touch land the law might recognize as qualifying. That’s not the same as qualifying — the law asks how much of the parcel’s edge, not whether it has a neighbor. So we measured the actual boundary, in feet, on all forty-seven.
Best result: 44.48 percent. The bar is 75. Nothing came close.
This isn’t the whole story, though. SB 686 is one law. SB 180 and HB 399 are the others — a freeze on tightening local rules, a squeeze on how cities enforce the rules they still have. We’ll be back with the full picture on just how far Tallahassee has gone to tie a local government’s hands in favor of the people building on the land it governs.
— Johnny Diamond · PalmCoastStorylines.com
Every data source, every judgment call, and the complete 47-parcel results table — disclosed in full so the “44.48 percent” finding above can be checked, not just trusted.