{"id":186099,"date":"2026-03-10T19:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186099\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:38:11","slug":"bill-halting-proposed-manatee-county-cruise-ship-terminal-heads-to-desantis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186099\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill halting proposed Manatee County cruise ship terminal heads to DeSantis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2121\" height=\"1414\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sunshine-Skyway-Bridge-in-St-Pete-by-Sean-Pavone-via-iStock-for-WMNF-News.jpg\" class=\"attachment-254954 size-254954 wp-post-image\" alt=\"Sunshine Skyway Bridge Florida\" large=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSunshine Skyway Bridge by Sean Pavone via iStock for WMNF News.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tListen:<\/p>\n<p>A bill passed in the legislature on Monday may be a win for environmental advocates around Tampa Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The bill that could halt the development of a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/proposed-manatee-county-cruise-port-draws-concerns-from-environmenhttps:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/proposed-manatee-county-cruise-port-draws-concerns-from-environmental-groups\/tal-groups\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> controversial mega cruise port<\/a> in Manatee County is now on the governor\u2019s desk for approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/302\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Bill 302<\/a> ensures coastal resiliency protections.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It would halt dredging in the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, except for certain reasons. That would be a roadblock for a potential cruise port near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Manatee County.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Manatee County Republican Representative Will Robinson Jr. called it one of the more important environmental bills in the entire session.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fish there, I fished there as a kid. My nephews fish there. It is one of the most pristine areas in our state, and we don\u2019t need mega cruise ships in this area.\u201d Rep. Robinson said.<\/p>\n<p>SSA Marine wants to build a new cruise port that would take in ships that can\u2019t fit under the bridge.<\/p>\n<p>The massive cruise ship proposal has drawn significant pushback, with hundreds rallying at protests and thousands signing petitions against it.<\/p>\n<p>The bill passed the Senate unanimously and now needs to be signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, something that longtime Manatee County resident Bob Reguzzoni hopes will happen soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSign this bill as soon as possible, and do it for the sake of the state, and for your legacy and the legacy of everybody that\u2019s involved in this,\u201d Reguzzoni told WMNF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunshine Skyway Bridge by Sean Pavone via iStock for WMNF News. Listen: A bill passed in the legislature&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14183,7088,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-186099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-cruise-ship","9":"tag-manatee-county","10":"tag-tampa","11":"tag-tampa-headlines","12":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}