{"id":61871,"date":"2025-11-26T19:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T19:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61871\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T19:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T19:19:09","slug":"florida-lawmaker-pushes-new-bill-for-transparency-in-state-land-transactions-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61871\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida lawmaker pushes new bill for transparency in state land transactions, conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Months after public outcry stopped a controversial land swap involving Guana Preserve in St. Johns County<\/a>, Rep. Kim Kendall has introduced HB 441 to prevent similar deals from happening without public knowledge.<\/p>\n

The bill requires the Division of State Lands to publish key information on its website at least 30 days before the Board of Trustees reviews proposed sales of conservation lands. This includes:<\/p>\n

Parcels of state-owned land for sale.<\/p>\n

A statement explaining why the lands are no longer needed for conservation.<\/p>\n

For land exchanges, the bill mandates the Division publish, at least 30 days before the Acquisition and Restoration Council meets:<\/p>\n

Parcels of state-owned and privately owned lands proposed for exchange.<\/p>\n

Portions of these lands to be preserved in permanent conservation easements.<\/p>\n

A statement on how the exchange benefits conservation.<\/p>\n

Any recommendations from the Division and council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public deserves to know what\u2019s happening with our land before decisions are made,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cIt\u2019s our public money; it\u2019s our public land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guana Preserve isn\u2019t the only park threatened by development; similar proposals for Anastasia State Park<\/a> and others were also stopped after public protest.<\/p>\n

HB 441 will soon face committee hearings. If passed, it will move to the full legislature and then the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

Kendall added, \u201cThere needs to be transparency, more clarity, and more notice. We want to make sure Floridians are informed and involved every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the full bill here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Months after public outcry stopped a controversial land swap involving Guana Preserve in St. Johns County, Rep. Kim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1563,28,30,29,37325,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-61871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-guana","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61871","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=61871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}