Yankeetown Litigation Settled by Community Planning Glitch Bill

Governor Scott signed the Community Planning Glitch Bill.The bill corrected a number of problems with last year's Community Planning Act, including approving language settling Yankeetown v. DEO (37 2011 CA 002036). Yankeetown had asked the court to declare that the Community Planning Act, HB 7207 (ch. 2011-139, Laws of Fla.), was unconstitutional. The real problem was that the Act did not grandfather previously-enacted local government comprehensive planning referendum requirements when it prohibited them.

The docket for the case shows that the Yankeetown filed a notice of voluntary dismissal earlier this month. That means the case is over, and the Community Planning Act appears safe from constitutional attack. Some are celebrating "the will of the people," but only time will tell whether the communities that have kept their referendum requirements will be better off for it.