When development outruns infrastructure, families pay the price. Flooding gets worse. Roads become more crowded. Water and wastewater systems face more strain. Utility costs rise. Insurance pressure grows. And too often, current residents are left subsidizing growth that never paid its own way.

This is not about stopping growth. It is about making sure growth is responsible, transparent, and fair to the people who already live here.

District 19’s waterways, wetlands, beaches, farmland, and natural lands are not just scenery. They help protect homes from flooding, support local business, preserve clean water, and define the character of Northeast Florida.

• The 2026 St. Johns County Local Mitigation Strategy reports 1,135 repetitive-loss properties countywide, including municipalities, and 99 severe repetitive-loss properties.
• Florida DEP’s August 2025 critical-erosion inventory identifies 24.8 miles of critically eroded shoreline in St. Johns County.
• St. Johns County’s SR 207 Water Reclamation Facility is a $191.8 million capital project built around reclaimed-water reuse and nutrient reduction.
• The county’s 2026 legislative action plan prioritizes septic-to-sewer and water projects in places including St. Augustine South, Treasure Beach, Dolphin Cove, Vermont Heights, and West Augustine.

Infrastructure before development

Major development should not move forward unless water, wastewater, stormwater, road, and evacuation capacity are in place and ready to handle it.

Growth that pays its fair share

Developers should not be allowed to pass the real costs of growth onto existing residents. Growth should help pay for the infrastructure it demands.

Protection for water, wetlands, and natural buffers

Wetlands, floodplains, waterways, dunes, and conservation lands are not decorative. They help protect clean water, reduce flood risk, and lower long-term public costs.

Stronger local voice and local planning authority

People who live in a community should have a stronger voice than state lawmakers or special interests when growth decisions shape their daily lives.

State support for wastewater, septic-to-sewer, and resilience projects

Suzanna will push for state funding and oversight that helps local communities deliver the water, drainage, shoreline, and resilience projects they already know they need.

Pause AI hyperscale data centers until Florida has standards

AI hyperscale data centers consume massive amounts of water and energy while creating few local jobs. I support a moratorium on new AI data center approvals until Florida enacts enforceable water-usage limits, energy-grid-impact reviews, and community-benefit requirements. This is not a permanent ban — it is a demand that Florida set rules first before approving projects that can strain water supplies and raise utility costs for families.

• Put infrastructure first before major development approvals
• Make growth pay its own way
• Protect wetlands, waterways, and natural flood buffers
• Defend local planning authority and community voice
• Support ready wastewater, drainage, and resilience projects
• Pause AI hyperscale data centers until Florida has real water, energy, and community-impact standards

In St. Augustine, the Lake Maria Sanchez stormwater project shows what “fix it later” can look like. When flooding problems build for years, communities end up paying for major retrofit projects that are expensive, disruptive, and long overdue. It is far smarter to protect natural flood buffers and require real infrastructure planning upfront.

This is where Suzanna’s approach is different. She is not against growth. She is against growth that outruns infrastructure, weakens local trust, and shifts costs onto the families already living here.

Smart growth means conditions first, approvals second. If the infrastructure is not ready, the project is not ready.

District 19 can grow without losing what makes it special. We can protect clean water, preserve the region’s natural heritage, support better neighborhoods, and make sure growth strengthens our communities instead of straining them.

Suzanna is running to bring practical leadership, local accountability, and a long-term view to growth so families can keep trusting, enjoying, and affording the place they call home.