TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Coming off last year’s hurricanes, residents up and down the coast were confused and frustrated with permitting and recovery delays. Now, with another hurricane season quickly approaching, several Tampa Bay lawmakers are pitching legislation, hoping to cut through the red tape and get Floridians back into their homes.

“Even today, there are residents who are waiting to get their permits to get back into their homes so they can start living their normal lives again,” said State Senator Nick Diceglie, R-Indian Rocks Island.

Diceglie of Pinellas County shared his efforts to tackle permitting issues in the Senate Community Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Senate Bill 180 is being described as a compilation of “lessons learned” after the 2024 hurricane season.

“One of the key elements in this bill is the permitting process and we unfortunately have seen, in Pinellas County specifically, that there was just simply a lack of training,” Diceglie said.

Diceglie is hoping a post-storm permitting plan is a step in the right direction.
“Every May 1 of each year, that plan is going to be on their website. The community is going to be able to see that plan, and that training is going to be no different than when we train law enforcement,” Diceglie said.

The lengthy bill also requires the Florida Division of Emergency Management to maintain a statewide emergency plan that coordinates with federal, state and local agencies. The plan includes provisions for evacuation, shelters, medical evacuations, post disaster response and recovery.

Waving in support of the bill, Eric Poole, executive director of the Institute for County Government and Florida Association of Counties, affirmed that Florida has the best emergency management system in the nation.

“The reason for it is because our system gets tested every single year. We learn from each of those storms — each storm is unique — and this bill, I think, apparently pulls in a lot of the lessons learned from the 2024 hurricane season,” Poole said.

As more and more lawmakers try a hand in tackling permitting concerns, the Florida Division of Emergency Management is now touting a first-of-its-kind statewide program that aims to elevate and harden homes.
“Not only is it going to help get people out of the floodway by getting them out of the floodway, that’s going to reduce their flood insurance premiums,” Guthrie said.

“Elevate Florida” looks to expedite and complete residential mitigation projects. Guthrie says the program aims to help about 1,000 homes with 5,000 applications already rolling in.
“We’re going to be fast with this. Our goal is to start raising homes by this summer,” Guthrie said.

Representative Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, another state lawmaker out of Pinellas County, is well-versed in permitting and recovery issues.
“There are a lot of places where we can have more expediency and better coordination between out federal state and local partners,” Cross said. “One thing I am going to be looking at is making sure our local governments have appropriate disaster preparedness plans.”