## Facts

- In 1997, Collier County adopted comprehensive-plan amendments that the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) determined were not in compliance with Florida’s growth-management law.
- After administrative proceedings (in which environmental groups participated), the Governor and Cabinet, sitting as the Administration Commission, issued a final order directing Collier County to take specific remedial measures.
- The Administration Commission required Collier County to designate specified lands as Natural Resource Protection Areas (NRPAs), stating the designation’s main purpose was to protect indigenous fauna and flora, especially the highly endangered Florida panther.
- The Commission’s order limited allowable NRPA uses to agricultural and directly related uses, plus one single-family dwelling unit per parcel or lot created before June 22, 1999.
- The Commission’s order also contemplated later changes, stating NRPA boundaries “shall be refined as actual data and analysis is made available.”
- Collier County adopted interim comprehensive-plan amendments implementing the NRPA designation for the areas identified in the Commission’s order and incorporating the order’s use restrictions.
- DCA reviewed the interim amendments and issued a final order finding the amendments in compliance with the Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land Development Regulation Act (the Act).
- Florida Wildlife Federation and Collier County Audubon Society (the environmental groups) challenged DCA’s compliance determination, arguing that (a) the NRPA boundaries should be expanded based on Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission telemetry data relating to panther use, and (b) the interim amendments were invalid because they did not include a specific “intensity-of-use” standard governing agricultural uses within NRPAs.
- After an administrative hearing, an administrative law judge (ALJ) rejected the challenge, finding the interim NRPAs were a necessary step before the County could complete the assessment contemplated by the Commission’s final order and that agricultural use within the NRPAs was not subject to a separate intensity-of-use standard.
- DCA adopted the ALJ’s recommended order as its final order. The environmental groups appealed to the First District Court of Appeal.

## Issues

1. Whether DCA erred in finding Collier County’s interim NRPA plan amendments in compliance with the Act when the environmental groups asserted the NRPA boundaries should be expanded immediately based on panther telemetry data.
2. Whether the Act’s requirement that land-use categories include “specific standards for the density or intensity of use” required the interim NRPA amendments to include an additional intensity-of-use standard regulating agricultural uses within NRPAs.

## Decision

- The First District Court of Appeal affirmed DCA’s final order approving the interim NRPA plan amendments as in compliance with state law.
- The court upheld the agency determination that adopting the Commission-specified NRPA boundaries on an interim basis was consistent with the Commission’s directive that the boundaries would later be refined as more data and analysis became available.
- The court also upheld the agency determination that, in this context, the interim amendments did not have to include a separate intensity-of-use standard for agricultural uses within NRPAs.

## Legal Principles

- When a controlling remedial order requires interim comprehensive-plan measures and anticipates later refinement as additional data and analysis become available, an interim amendment may be found in compliance if it implements the ordered designations and restrictions while leaving further boundary refinement to the later process contemplated by the order.
- Under the Act, the requirement for “specific standards for the density or intensity of use” may be satisfied where the plan’s land-use designation and accompanying limits meaningfully constrain development within the designated area; an additional, separate intensity metric for agricultural activity is not necessarily required in every setting.
- Appellate review gives substantial deference to DCA’s final compliance determinations and to reasonable agency interpretations applied in evaluating whether comprehensive-plan amendments meet statutory requirements.

## Conclusion

The First District affirmed DCA’s final order approving Collier County’s interim comprehensive-plan amendments that designated specified lands as NRPAs and limited uses primarily to agriculture and one single-family dwelling per qualifying parcel. The court agreed that the interim boundaries could track the Administration Commission’s remedial order while later refinement proceeded as additional information became available, and it also accepted the agency’s conclusion that the Act did not require an added, separate intensity-of-use standard for agricultural uses within the interim NRPA designation.


Florida Wildlife Federation v. Collier County, 819 So. 2d 200 (2002)