Alex Andrade’s presidential library bill advances through committee

Alex Andrade takes a pass on the Senate.

A that would bar local governments from interfering with a future Donald Trump Presidential Library has advanced through the first of its two committee stops.

Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade filed the bill (HB 69), which is a companion bill to Lake Mary Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur’s measure (SB 118).

The bill specifically “preempts to the state all regulation of the establishment, maintenance, activities, and operations of any presidential library within its jurisdiction and defers regulation of such institutions to the Federal Government.”

Counties, municipalities or other political subdivisions of Florida would be restricted from enacting or enforcing any ordinance, resolution, rule or other measure that governs the establishment, maintenance or operation of the presidential library or impose any requirement or restriction except specifically authorized by federal law.

The legislation made its way through the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee Thursday and had one amendment.

“The reasoning behind it is to make sure the planning, design, and construction process for the presidential library here in the state is as smooth as possible,” Andrade said.

Orlando Democratic Rep. Rita Harris asked if the bill would affect residents who would be living around the presidential library.

“So, if it’s state-owned land, and they want to give it to the federal, that would become federal land, and therefore, residents or people around that piece of property would then have limited ability to prevent it from happening?” Harris asked.

Andrade said the homeowners located around the presidential library wouldn’t particularly be affected by its construction and reiterated that the intent is to keep the process straightforward.

“The ownership of land would not necessarily be affected by, at any given time, by a neighbor who would then buy that land themselves,” Andrade said.

“Normally if you’re going to go do a large development of a large building on a parcel, that requires a development order from a local government and often times that process can be confusing and its different based on the jurisdiction, regardless of whether or not its Doral, or Palm Beach, or personally I hope, Pensacola. In the event that a presidential library is proposed here in the state of Florida in the near future, the intent is to make it as smooth a process as possible for that former president.”

The proposed amendment by Andrade simply clarifies what is preemptive to Florida related to local government zoning authority. The amendment was adopted unanimously. The committee passed the overall bill via a 13-2 vote.

Its next stop is the House State Affairs Committee.