New Florida law a ‘gift to developers.’ Critics sue to block it.

In Manatee County, developers can now build closer to mangroves than ever. In New Smyrna Beach, the city’s new flood protections could be overturned. In Orange County, a decade’s worth of planning for a new zoning code is dead in the water.

That’s all thanks to a few crucial words — “restrictive and burdensome” — inserted in a bill initially introduced to help Florida communities recover from devastating hurricanes. Instead, counties and cities across Florida have faced a wave of lawsuits from developers — citing that key phrase — with demands to build cheaper or denser or to push into land considered flood-prone or closer to protected natural area like mangroves.

A growing number of municipalities and smart growth advocates argue the resulting new law has flipped the power over new deve