Florida's Growth Fight Puts Local Control at Stake

Florida’s 2025 development law limits local governments’ power to impose development regulations after a hurricane. Rural communities also face data-center proposals, while the state’s governor candidates debate how to manage growth. The dispute puts local planning, water and electricity demand, and conservation on the agenda alongside the Everglades restoration projects Gov. Ron DeSantis backed.

Growth and Local Authority

Concern about development in formerly rural areas, along with data centers’ demands for water and electricity, figures prominently in the governor’s race. Haley Busch, outreach director with 1000 Friends of Florida, said residents were discussing growth, congestion and “seeing their Old Florida disappear.” She said data-center proposals in rural areas had mobilized residents concerned about long-term planning.

Democrat David Jolly has pledged to pause hyperscale data-center construction and unwind some development laws passed under DeSantis. One such law, passed in 2025, restricts local governments from imposing development regulations after a hurricane.

Jolly criticized the Live Local Act, saying it hasn’t delivered the affordable housing its supporters promised. “Live Local and other acts were designed to deliver more affordable housing, it hasn't,” he said. “What we have seen is it's a giveaway to developers that have built the million-dollar condos and disrupted communities. It hasn't impacted workforce and affordable housing.”

GOP Rep. Byron Donalds has said he would protect natural resources from data centers and overdevelopment. Critics have faulted him for accepting millions of dollars from real estate and data-center interests. His campaign spokesperson did not respond to questions before publication.

Everglades Funding and Unfinished Work

DeSantis’ administration secured nearly $9.5 billion for water quality and Everglades restoration and acquired more than half a million acres for conservation. He also signed a law establishing a program to make coastlines and inland waterways more resilient to sea-level rise, despite opposing what he called “radical climate agendas.”

The EAA Reservoir, south of Lake Okeechobee, is a multibillion-dollar project meant to improve the quantity and quality of water flowing to the Everglades and Florida Bay, while reducing harmful discharges to south Florida estuaries. State and federal governments agreed to speed up its completion by five years; it’s scheduled to be finished by 2029.

At a Cabinet meeting in late September, DeSantis called the reservoir the “crown jewel” of Everglades restoration. He said, “I don't think we're going to need to spend what I've spent on the Everglades, because we've gotten so much done,” adding that state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Alexis Lambert “may have something to say” about it.

Gil Smart, executive director of VoteWater, said finishing the project could allow DeSantis’ successor to declare restoration finished. “If you take the view that that is the final piece of the puzzle, then once it's done, you can stand atop it, wave the flag, and say we did it,” he said. “But you have to look at what the system is doing at that point too.” Advocates said the reservoir and related projects wouldn’t fix all of Florida’s water problems. They said the next governor would need to address nutrient pollution and consider acquiring more land for water storage and treatment.

Candidates’ Environmental Commitments

At an event where the Everglades Trust endorsed him, Donalds said he would continue state funding for restoration and that “our goal is to be done over the next four years,” followed by a management phase. “It's not just about finishing the work, it's about maintaining it, managing it, so it can continue to be beautiful,” he said.

Jolly has also said he would continue Everglades restoration and expand Florida Forever. He would consider “nearly wholesale replacing” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose members he described as “developers and trophy hunters.” A governor’s new commissioners would need state Senate approval.

Environmental advocates called the construction of “Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration detention center in a national preserve that has since been shuttered, a major stumble. DeSantis press secretary Molly Best cited Everglades restoration, water quality, Florida Forever, coastal resilience projects and the removal of fluoride from public drinking water. Nick Wiley, head of the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida, said balancing growth and environmental management had “never been more front and center than it is right now.”