Naples’ Home Rule is being extinguished by State Senate Bills and power grabs threatening the City’s 100-year tradition of local self-government by the people. 

Three proposals define this troubling trend: Florida Senate Bill 250 and Senate Bill 180, both limiting local governing powers, and the recent push by Senator Passidomo and three Representatives to strip the Naples City Council of its power to appoint commissioners to the Naples Airport Authority (NAA).

The Combined Effect of the State’s Troubling Actions

These Bills represent the silencing of Naples residents.

• On the ground: No authority to enact resiliency ordinances, leading to more storm losses and soaring insurance costs.        
• In the air: Airport governance taken out of City hands and placed into Collier elections dominated by outside voters and PACs.
  
• Over time: Naples reduced to a powerless venue, with decisions made far away from the neighborhoods they impact.
  
• Your Codes and Airport now, it’s a safe bet that this over-reach won’t stop here; what’s next to control, your beaches?
  

What Home Rule Means

Home Rule, is the constitutional right of Florida cities to govern themselves on matters of local concern, unencumbered by state lawmakers. For Naples, it means residents, through their elected City Council, can decide how growth is managed, how neighborhoods are protected, how safety and health standards are enforced, and how the city’s fragile coastal environment is preserved.

Home Rule is the guarantee that those who live with the consequences make the decisions. It is how Naples safeguards its small-scale charm, its livability, and its identity as a world-class coastal community. Local Voices. Local Choices.

The Impact of Senate Bills 250 and 180

Both Florida Senate Bill 250 which became law in 2023, and the more recent Senate Bill 180, were passed ostensibly to facilitate recovery from Hurricane Ian.  Yet they go far beyond the political rhetoric; they prohibit cities from adopting or enforcing local ordinances that regulate zoning, density, intensity, and building design, areas where Naples has always set higher standards to protect its residents.

These State preemptions mean Naples is barred from enacting sensible resiliency ordinances tailored to our coastal geography, to absorb stormwater, and mitigate flooding.  Absent of our local control, more destruction, and higher residential insurance rates will impact Naples families who already shoulder some of the highest risks and costs; real life issues that Tallahassee lawmakers will never personally bear.

These Bills also restrict the updating of our Comprehensive Plan which is the City’s governing document, developed with the resident’s response to our Vision Surveys, intended to align our governance with the residents’ values.  Updating the Plan is in process but threatens to be stalled unless SB 180 is revised or repealed.  The Naples City Council has responded to this serious over-reach by joining 12 other Florida cities in a legal action that demands repeal of SB 180.

The Airport Power Grab

Equally troubling is the proposal to take away Naples City Council’s authority to appoint NAA commissioners and replace appointments with a Collier County-wide airport commissioner election where County voters outnumber City voters  15:1. 

Our City Council has appointed competent NAA commissioners for the last 57 years who have overseen an efficient and financially stable airport. The Airport sits on one square mile of City owned land, your land, 8% of the City’s total 12- square mile land mass, arguably worth Billions of dollars.  The appointment of Commissioners to manage the largest City asset appropriately belongs to the City and its residents.

In proposing this change in management, Tallahassee politicians present no operational deficiency as justification for disenfranchising the local City Council and your voice.  They only want a hand in controlling your land, your asset, your rights.

A County wide election vs. the appointment to this Board by a City Council will open the door to upstate political action committees (PACs) and outside money—and will produce candidates backed by statewide interests, spending freely to control the conversation. Naples residents, already a small fraction of the electorate, will see their voices drowned beneath a wave of paid advertising and PAC-funded messaging and new Commissioners beholden to donors, lobbyists and countrywide politics.

Defend Naples’ Voice and your Democracy Now

Home Rule is a constitutional principle designed to protect communities like ours from being ruled by distant legislators or overwhelmed by outside majorities. To lose it is to lose the very ability to govern ourselves.

Naples residents from every neighborhood should unite and object to Senate Bills which limit our local governing power, and defend the right of the City to appoint NAA Commissioners who will manage our Airport.

Write to City Council and tell them to protect your rights:

Council@naplesgov.com

Write to Senator Kathleen Passidomo and tell her to repeal the Senate Bills that interfere with Local Governance:

Passidomo.kathleen@flsenate.gov

Write to the three Representatives outside the City who designed and voted on the Bill to hold elections outside the City for seats on the NAA Board:

Yvette.benarroch@myfloridahouse.gov

Lauren.Melo@myfloridahouse.gov

Adam.Botana@myfloridahouse.gov

he States Dismantling of Naples Home Rule