Peter Nehr fights for bill to protect East Lake fire district from annexation
An all-or-nothing bill that would have protected the East Lake Special Fire Control District from involuntary, piecemeal annexation will not become law this year.
“With so many important issues facing Florida today such as job creation and revising our economy,” Rep. Peter Nehr said Wednesday, “it appears this particular issue was not critical enough to be heard this session.”
Nehr, a Tarpon Springs Republican who represents East Lake and sponsored the bill in the House, had worked with the Council of North County Neighborhoods to craft a bill that would make it difficult for any municipality to annex part of the fire district unless it planned to take it all — a move that would have required voter approval.
The collaboration grew out of a measure on last year’s ballot that asked voters if the East Lake Woodlands subdivision, the Shoppes of Boot Ranch, the East Lake Woodlands Shopping Center and Lockheed Martin should be annexed into Oldsmar. Of the 3,589 people in East Lake who cast a ballot, 3,292 people opposed the idea.
In March, Nehr filed the bill, which was referred to the House’s Military and Local Affairs Policy committee for consideration. That committee never heard it. So last week, the state Senate went ahead and passed the measure in the hopes that the House would add it to its local bill calendar. Sen. Mike Fasano, the New Port Richey Republican who sponsored that branch’s version of the bill, encouraged members of the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation to bring the bill to the House floor, said Greg Giordano, Fasano’s chief legislative assistant. It has yet to appear on the calendar, and the session ends today.
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