No. CS/CS/SB 302
Filed under Environment & Water.
Coastal Resiliency; Prohibiting the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund from approving the dredging or filling of the submerged lands of the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve unless such dredging and filling occurs for certain reasons; authorizing certain dredging and filling of submerged lands and placement of certain shorelines and seawalls within the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve; authorizing the erection of certain structures within aquatic preserves; requiring the Department of Environmental Protection, by a specified date, to develop guidelines and standards for nature-based methods to address coastal resiliency and to adopt rules, subject to legislative ratification, for a statewide permitting process for such coastal resiliency, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDBy January 2027, the Department of Environmental Protection must write design standards and a single statewide permitting process for nature-based coastal projects like living shorelines, reef restoration, and green stormwater infrastructure, subject to legislative ratification.
In the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, new dredging or filling is barred except for narrow purposes: public navigation, hazard removal, habitat enhancement, and small marina or dock projects that pass a water-quality safeguard.
The Board of Trustees gains new authority to dredge or fill in Biscayne Bay for mangrove, marsh, seagrass, and oyster-reef restoration, and living shorelines and seawalls join riprap as approved shoreline-stabilization methods there.
Statewide, aquatic preserves may now permit nature-based structures such as living seawalls, seagrass planting, and wave-attenuation devices, and a local government's failure to adopt a marina plan can no longer block such structures.
AIBy January 1, 2027, the department must adopt, subject to legislative ratification, a single statewide permitting process covering criteria, monitoring, emergencies, exemptions, and incentives for nature-based coastal resiliency methods.
AIThe department must develop design guidelines and standards for using green or hybrid green-gray infrastructure to fight erosion, sea-level rise, and storm surge by January 1, 2027.
AINo further dredging or filling of Terra Ceia's submerged lands may be approved except for narrow categories like public navigation necessity, hazard elimination, or small marina and dock projects, and even those require a specific board finding that water quality won't suffer.
AIThe Board of Trustees may now authorize minimum dredging and filling in Biscayne Bay specifically to restore mangroves, salt marshes, seagrasses, and oyster reefs, adding ecological restoration to what the preserve law allows.
AIMiami-Dade County and the department may now use living shorelines and seawalls, not just riprap and vegetation, to stabilize eroding Biscayne Bay shorelines that are adding turbidity to the bay.
AILiving seawalls, shoreline and seagrass planting, wave attenuation devices, and green stormwater infrastructure may now be approved as structures within any aquatic preserve, and a local government's failure to adopt a marina siting plan can no longer be used to block such a structure.