UPDATE on HB4077: The Bocilla Islands Chain Conservation District Act

We missed our window of opportunity to have HB 4077 passed in the last session of the legislature. But why?

Last October, the state delegation representing Charlotte County accepted our bill, sponsored by House Representative Danny Nix, to move forward. The draft incorporated comments from the Charlotte County Commissioners into the language of the bill.

The bill was then filed and given a number and was ready to proceed through 3 committees as part of the standard protocol.

When the agenda for the first committee’s meeting was made public, HB 4077 was not there. PIE sent a call to action for its membership to show support for the bill and to ask the legislators to put our bill on the agenda. However, it’s our understanding that during this same timeframe, the County was lobbying for the committee to leave it off the agenda. As a result, the bill did not get onto the agenda for the first committee to review. This effectively killed the forward motion for the bill in the last session.

So, why did the County influence the proceedings to have the bill withdrawn?

The County Commissioners asked to have HB 4077 withdrawn citing their “Home Rule Charter”. This piece of local law states that governmental decisions affecting local interests should be made locally rather than by the state. In other words, they didn’t want the state to interfere with their business. Representative Nix agreed to withdraw the bill to give the County time to implement their strategy.

According to Representative Nix, the County wants to implement all of the elements of HB 4077 in the most stringent form that they can at the county level. However, we are not aware of any vehicle at the local level that provides the kind of long-term protection that the state legislation can. It is far more difficult to amend an adopted bill than it is to amend the County’s Comprehensive Plan.

There will be nothing to update until we know exactly what the County intends to do.

If we can get HB 4077 approved in the future, why do we need to develop a neighborhood plan?

• The House Bill is very general, essentially locking in existing local regulations and recognizing the Island as a fragile environment requiring protection.
• The Neighborhood Plan is much more detailed. It is a snapshot of specific needs and issues to be addressed and the community’s preferred way of addressing them.
• The Neighborhood Plan may be followed up with requests to create local ordinances that are Island-specific to resolve Island issues.