Officials in Sebastian are examining how the city manages development amid ongoing concerns from residents about the pace of growth, as the newly appointed city attorney outlined limits imposed by state law.
During a recent meeting, Mayor Fred Jones said he has heard frequent complaints from residents who believe the city is expanding too quickly.
"I've heard a lot from the public that people think that we're growing too fast here and I feel like we need to slow down too. I know Senate Bill 180 preempts us from doing a lot of things, but I'm thinking that there has to be something that we can do to limit growth," Jones said.
City Attorney Jim Stokes explained that Senate Bill 180 was enacted after multiple hurricanes struck Florida’s coast, with the intent of helping communities recover from storm damage.
"It was very broad because they said any jurisdiction that was impacted by a hurricane or was within 100 or 150 miles from it, which when you looked at the path of the two major storms we had leading up to that, it pretty much encompassed the entire state," Stokes said.
He said the law’s broad language has had significant implications for local governments’ ability to change land use rules.
"It said that no community, no municipality or county could make any changes to any land use laws that were deemed more restrictive," he said.
As a result, Stokes said cities are limited in how they can respond to development proposals.
"What we're left with at this point is pretty much just having to be more reactive. If property owners come with something, we look at it. You can't do moratoriums. You've got to allow construction, you've got to allow development, and you've got to allow it within the parameters that exist today. You can't make anything harder for developers," he said.
Councilmember Ed Dodd cautioned against stopping growth altogether, arguing that cities must continue to evolve.
"If you stagnate your business to the point where you cannot grow, you will die. It's that simple. I mean, cities all over the state of Florida, all over the United States, have turned into massive centers of almost poverty because they chose to bury their heads and not take care of this. It's absolutely impossible, from my opinion, for a city like Sebastian to be totally anti-growth. But they can attempt through their comp plan and through the mechanisms that the state allows you to legally use to try to control how that growth works," Dodd said.
He encouraged the council to consider tools still available under state law, including changes to the city’s comprehensive plan.
"The council's position on this should be that we want the staff to move forward with looking for and modifying those kinds of changes. We have the legislative authority to do that if we choose to do it," he said.
Before concluding his remarks, Jones emphasized that he is not opposed to development but wants closer scrutiny of proposals before they advance.
"Some of these projects that are coming, you can look at them and you can tell in the future this is not going to be what it's projected to be now. And this is what we have to do a better job along with staff before they get to that level to say here's what we'd like to see," he said.
No formal vote was taken. City officials said they plan to review the comprehensive plan and consider possible code revisions related to growth.