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FLORIDA FRIENDLY LANDSCAPING – A GOOD LAW?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
November 4, 2016
When the Florida legislature passed in 2009 the laws commonly
known as the Florida Friendly Landscaping Acts, everybody
thought that these are reasonable laws that would definitely
help saving important water resources and protect our water
resources from pesticides. Both
FS 720.3075 (4)(a) and
FS 373.185 promised to be good solid laws as written.
But, as usual in Florida, the enforcement of these laws is
lacking – and laws without enforcement are useless, as Florida’s
homeowners found out in recent years.
When passing these laws, the legislature appointed the
University of Florida as the “watchdog” over these laws, having
the university making the rules of what is supposed to be
Florida Friendly Landscaping. Sounds good, as long as you don’t
require the folks in charge of the University of Florida
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS)
to testify in court as to what kind of turf is actually
“Florida-Friendly” grass.
Most homeowners’ associations here in Florida actually require
homeowners to use St. Augustine grass for their landscaping –
and this kind of turf is definitely one of the grasses that
needs a lot of care, plenty of water, chemical fertilizers and
pesticides – exactly the kind of landscaping the Florida
legislature tried to avoid in Florida’s gardens when creating
these laws. But the UF employees are plainly refusing to testify
in courts to the fact that St. Augustine grass is definitely
anything but “Florida-Friendly” -- it's actually considered a
"water-guzzler."
Homeowners and their attorneys, defending lawsuits about
Florida-Friendly landscaping against their homeowners’
associations, found out real quick that the UF is definitely not
the place to find experts willing to testify in court about
“Florida-Friendly” turf. Owners had to settle lawsuits, because
the watchdog was unwilling to watch – meaning the University of
Florida experts were unwilling to testify what kind of turf
should be considered Florida-Friendly.
You may wonder why, considering that the legislature named the
UF as the watchdog over their laws?
“Rumor” has it that Florida Turfgrass Association is a huge
contributor to the funds of UF. The number of $10 million has
been tossed around in connection with these contributions.
In my opinion enough reason for the University to fail in their
task as the watchdog of “Florida-Friendly” Landscaping. With
other words: Money again won over the facts – as it is usual
here in Florida.
I always wonder why the legislature creates such laws – and then
making them useless through the lack of enforcement.
With other words: These are more laws citizens should rely on
for protection. Without the watchdog willing to do its job these
laws are just a waste of paper!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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