Florida House passes bill to add transparency on conservation land decisions

Max Chesnes, Miami Herald on Feb 17, 2026

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The Florida House unanimously passed a bipartisan bill Tuesday that would shed more light on state conservation decisions after a series of recent public lands controversies gave little room for public input.

The measure, House Bill 441, would require a month’s notice when the state considers selling or trading conservation land. The bill also requires officials to explain why the land is no longer needed for conservation.

“What this bill does is make sure that Floridians do have adequate time to be able to know about the issues that are threatening the lands in their communities, and give them actual time to work on it,” said Rep. Allison Tant, a Democrat from Tallahassee who co-sponsored the bill.

Tant filed the bill alongside Rep. Kim Kendall, a Republican from St. Augustine, who introduced the legislation as a response to a proposal last summer to trade 600 acres of a beloved St. Johns County wilderness preserve in her district to a mysterious private holding company.

The way the proposal was unveiled by Florida’s top environmental regulators — giving the public only a few days to digest the plans before it was slated for a vote — highlighted gaps in state law, Kendall said.

When previously asked by the Times who was behind the proposal, Gov. Ron DeSantis wouldn’t say, though it has been widely rumored that Patrick Zalupski, the president of Dream Finders Homes and new managing partner of the Tampa Bay Rays, was involved. Zalupski has not responded to inquires about his possible involvement.

In what is likely a response to the heightened, bipartisan public support of public lands, and the subsequent outcry against the DeSantis’ administration’s growing habit of shrouding conservation decisions in secrecy, the bill has moved through the legislative process with broad bipartisan support.

House lawmakers passed the bill 109-0, and on the Senate side, it also cleared its final committee hurdle Tuesday before a full Senate vote. If the Senate approves the measure, it’ll then head to DeSantis’ desk for his signature.

Despite the small window after the public first learned of the proposal to swap the Guana River Wildlife Management Area land in May, opponents still mustered protests that lined the busy streets of Florida State Road A1A in St. Johns County. After President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, came out against the proposal, the landowners eventually abandoned the plan.

Now, Kendall says her bill would give Floridians the transparency and time they deserve to protect natural treasures that face the threat of development by giving them notice of four things:

The parcels that could be traded or sold, the appraised value of the land, the percentage of the land that’s going to be kept in conservation, and what Kendall refers to as the “why statement” from state environmental regulators: “Why is it a benefit for us in the state to do this land swap?” she said from the House floor Tuesday.

If one of Florida’s five water management districts wants to sell or trade some of its public conservation lands, the bill would also require a 30-day notice.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen attacks on our public lands,” Rep. Lindsay Cross, a St. Petersburg Democrat, said on the House floor Tuesday. “This bill is going to give transparency. It’s going to give Floridians the assurance that the public lands that were protected with their tax dollars are going to be protected.”

This latest round of public lands reforms inches closer to becoming law on the heels of last year’s passage of the State Park Preservation Act, a direct lawmaker response to the DeSantis administration’s widely opposed, now-abandoned plans to develop nine state parks with hotels and golf courses. Those plans were first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

Sarah Gledhill, president and the chief executive officer of the nonprofit Florida Wildlife Federation, said the transparency legislation, coming after last year’s parks bill, is another bite at the apple of long-needed changes surrounding Florida’s conservation laws.

“This is a win-win for Floridians and people who visit our public lands,” Gledhill said in an interview. The Florida Wildlife Federation lobbied in favor of the bill.

“They want to have input on the conservation process, and this bill ensures that the public will have a say on how these lands may be managed in the future.”

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(Times staff writer Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this report.)

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