In St. Johns and Flagler, FL House District 19, reckless development is outpacing our infrastructure. We’re all paying for it. When developers pave over wetlands and growth is rubber-stamped without adequate water, wastewater, roads, or evacuation capacity, the costs don’t disappear. They shift onto us: flooding, higher insurance premiums, traffic gridlock, and rising utility rates.

We live beside some of Florida’s most remarkable natural resources. The Matanzas watershed, Pellicer Creek, Moses Creek, incredible beaches, and state parks that draw visitors from around the world. These aren’t just beautiful places. Our wetlands and waterways protect homes from flooding, keep our drinking water clean, and power eco-tourism and local small businesses. Once they’re damaged or destroyed, they are both enormously expensive and, in many cases, impossible to replace.

That’s why responsible planning matters before problems become crises. The City of St. Augustine is already spending millions on the Lake Maria Sanchez Stormwater Project. An FDEP-funded effort requiring new pump stations, flood walls, and tide check valves to reduce flooding across roughly 200 acres of historic downtown caused by rain and tidal events. This is what “fix it later” looks like: expensive, disruptive, and entirely preventable. It is far cheaper and far smarter to protect wetlands and require real stormwater planning upfront than to retrofit neighborhoods that never should have flooded in the first place.

Growth isn’t the enemy. Unplanned, developer-driven sprawl is. Right now, new development in St. Johns and Flagler Counties often doesn’t pay its fair share of the infrastructure it demands. That means existing residents subsidize the roads, water systems, and emergency services that serve new construction.
Consider what’s happening right now: roughly 200 acres along the Matanzas River in St. Johns County, land that has been platted since the 1970s, is being developed with no meaningful buffer protecting the waterway. In Flagler County, the Marineland area faces a wastewater treatment system in terrible shape. The Department of Environmental Protection wanted to approve new capacity, but advocacy groups pushed back. Because the system simply cannot handle more development. Flagler County is now exploring a buyout.
These aren’t abstract policy debates. They’re happening in our backyards. And they underscore how far behind Florida has fallen in funding the infrastructure that communities need.
What I’ll fight for:

1. Infrastructure before development.
2. Water, wastewater, stormwater, roads, and evacuation capacity must be in place, verified, not just promised, before major projects move forward.
3. Developers pay their fair share.
4. The costs of growth should not be shifted onto the families already living here.
5. Transparent impact assessments.
6. Communities deserve honest accounting of what new development will cost them in services, traffic, and environmental impact.

The federal Clean Water Act set a goal in 1972 to make America’s waters “fishable, drinkable, and swimmable” by 1985. More than 50 years later, we’re still falling short, and in Florida, we’re moving in the wrong direction.

The core issue is that our regulatory system was built to address “point source” pollution, what comes out of a pipe. But most of Florida’s water quality problems come from other sources: fertilizer runoff, failing septic systems, and agricultural operations that enjoy broad exemptions from oversight. Nutrient pollution from these sources is choking our waterways, fueling algal blooms, and threatening drinking water supplies.

Making matters worse, Florida relies on a “presumption of compliance” for stormwater management, meaning systems are built on assumptions and models, not actual water quality testing. If we don’t monitor, we don’t know what’s getting into our water until the damage is done.

And the pollution is spreading. South Florida’s sewage problems are literally being trucked to our doorstep. In 2007, the legislature banned land-application of sewage sludge in the Lake Okeechobee watershed to protect South Florida’s water. The result? Tens of thousands of tons of biosolids, primarily from Broward and Miami-Dade counties, are now shipped north and dumped on farmland in the St. Johns River watershed. And Florida doesn’t require testing these biosolids for PFAS, pharmaceuticals, or other emerging contaminants before they’re spread on the ground. We don’t even know what’s seeping into our soil and groundwater. The most cost-effective solution is also the most obvious: stop pollution at the source.
What I’ll fight for:

1. Real water quality monitoring, not presumption of compliance, but actual testing that holds polluters accountable.
2. Stronger septic and fertilizer regulations to reduce nutrient pollution in our waterways.
3. Closing agricultural loopholes that exempt major polluters from meaningful oversight.
4. Mandatory testing of biosolids for PFAS and other contaminants before land application is permitted.
5. Investment in wastewater infrastructure so our systems can handle the growth that’s already here, before approving more.
6. Support for Florida-Friendly landscaping programs that reduce fertilizer use and cut the amount of drinking water wasted on lawns.

In 2014, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to fund land conservation. The intent was clear: dedicate a portion of documentary stamp revenue to protect Florida’s most important natural lands, waters, and working farms.
The legislature broke that promise.
Funds that were supposed to buy conservation land and easements were diverted to other uses. A lawsuit challenged the misappropriation, a judge acknowledged the issue but ultimately ruled it moot. Meanwhile, annual funding for Florida Forever has cratered from roughly $300 million to below $100 million, AND in some years, the House has allocated nothing at all.

At current funding levels, the state cannot keep pace with the rate of development consuming priority conservation lands. Local governments are increasingly trying to fill the gap on their own, but they can’t replace what the state has abandoned.

This isn’t just about open space. Conservation lands protect drinking water sources, reduce flood risk, support Florida’s $100+ billion tourism economy, and preserve working agricultural lands, including cattle ranches that continue to operate under conservation easements.

What I’ll fight for:

Full, constitutional funding of Florida Forever — at levels that match the scale of the threat to our remaining natural lands.
Prioritizing acquisition of lands that protect: water supplies, reduce flood risk, and preserve critical wildlife habitat.
Supporting conservation easements that keep working farms and ranches productive while permanently protecting the land.
Opposing misappropriation of conservation dollars for purposes voters never intended.

Planning decisions about our communities should be made by the people who live in them — not overridden by Tallahassee. But the Florida Legislature has been systematically stripping away local Home Rule authority, taking power from county commissions and city councils and handing it to developers and special interests.

SB 180 is a prime example. Vague “blob” language — originally framed as post-hurricane rebuilding authority — was used to reject St. Johns County’s own growth management plan. When residents invest time and effort in local planning processes, only to have the state override their input, it destroys public trust in government.

The Blue Ribbon Project raises similar concerns. Under proposals moving through the legislature, local governments could lose the ability to deny certain large-scale developments, even when infrastructure, environmental, or community concerns clearly warrant denial. The debate over whether 60% of land must be “conserved” versus merely “reserved” (which could include power lines, solar farms, and wastewater facilities) highlights how developers and their allies in Tallahassee use language to undermine real protections.

In St. Johns County, a New York-based firm controls roughly 35,000 acres of land that could become automatically developable under weakened state rules. Our community’s future shouldn’t be decided by out-of-state investors and Tallahassee insiders.

What I’ll fight for:

Restoring local zoning and planning authority so our communities can set responsible growth standards based on science, infrastructure capacity, and public input.
Opposing state preemption of local environmental and land-use protections.
Ensuring meaningful public participation in planning decisions — and making sure that participation actually matters.
Pushing back on legislation that strips communities of the power to manage their own growt