Polk’s legislators heard more from local officials about effects of SB 180 on local efforts to update development regulations during the Aug. 12 delegation meeting in Bartow, the Winter Haven Sun reports.
Winter Haven City Manager T. Michael Stavres said the legislation forced the City Commission to repeal a tree-protection ordinance it approved in September 2024 (SB 180 made the restrictions retroactive to Aug. 1, 2024).
That ordinance, which was the first substantial amendment to the city’s landscaping ordinance in several years, required that trees–especially heritage oaks and specimen trees–be protected during construction work of various types. This was a major setback to the city’s efforts to implement an urban forestry master plan that had been prepared by a consultant.
This is not an isolated case.
During discussion Aug. 13 of an ongoing rewrite of the county development regulations by a volunteer committee, members were told it was unclear how much of their work would be able to be implemented unless legislators repeal sections of the law.
Officials all over Florida reportedly have voiced similar concerns about seeing years of work by lay committees to complete periodic updates of their growth regulations be trashed because of this legislative mandate.
Some local governments have reportedly agreed to join lawsuits to challenge the restrictions, but so far, no such lawsuit has been field.
The restrictions were added to a bill that was originally proposed to deal with post-hurricane reconstruction issues to give property owners an opportunity to rebuild without dealing with lengthy regulatory delays.
At this point it is unknown how or whether legislators will respond to these complaints by local officials.
Stay tuned as committee meetings and bill filings begin later this year in advance of the 2026 session.

While a volunteer committee spends hours reviewing Polk’s growth plan as part of a required periodic review, it is unclear whether any of their suggestions will go anywhere.
That’s because last year the Florida Legislature passed, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill (SB 180) that included provisions that prohibits local officials from enacting tougher growth regulations or growth plans and made the ban retroactive to last year.
The Polk County Commission has already shelved proposed changes that dealt with development in perennially flood-prone areas because of this change.
During a recent work session with the county’s lobbyists. commissioners learned this is a statewide concern because some of the areas affected were poorly defined (within 100 miles of the storm track) and appears to be having perhaps unintended consequences.
As a result, the lobbyists said there is some feeling legislators may be forced to walk back or clarify the provisions.
That is because it would nullify years of work by local officials, which does not seem fair.
Nevertheless, whether legislators will relent on this pro-developer further erosion of growth management is hard to say because this is the same folks who voted to require all votes to increase impact fees, which many developers oppose, to be unanimous and not simply by a super majority.
Elections matter and what happened last year is another reminder of the need for the public who regularly complains about overdevelopment to support candidates that share their views.

Following up on an announcement last March accompanying plans for an injection well at Mosaic’s Plant City facility , Mosaic is proceeding with plans to seek permits for injection wells at its New Wales and Bartow plants, according to recently published legal notices.
The fertilizer corporation recently received a permit to conduct exploratory work for the projects.
The wells are intended as disposal sites for acidic wastewater from the fertilizer plants’ phosphogypsum stacks.
Two public meetings are planned. Both will occur from 4 to 7 p.m. at the W.H. Stuart Center, 1702 US 17 South, Bartow. The Bartow well will be the subject of the meeting on Sept. 9. The New Wales project will be the subject of the Sept.10 meeting.
The New Wales plant south of Mulberry has experienced a handful of sinkholes that sent acidic waste into the aquifer. Mosaic officials said after the incidents they were able to pump the contaminated water into treatment areas onsite. They said at the time that avoided offsite impacts that could have affected area residents’ private drinking water wells if the spills had not been mitigated.
There have been no reported sinkholes at Mosaic’s Bartow plant, though there have been a handful of incidents since 2019 that have involved spills of contaminated material that Mosaic reported was contained on its property.
Mosaic does have a permit to discharge some treated waste water into a tributary of the Peace River. which has resulted in criticism from some environmental groups representing downstream interests.