The Florida Supreme Court is siding with local government in a high-stakes test of the sweeping property rights law known as the Bert Harris Act.
At issue was a $38 million claim by the owners of neurological rehabilitation center in Hardee County. Center owners said they were owed damages because a zoning change would allow phosphate mining within 150 feet of their facility.
But in her majority opinion, Justice Peggy Quince sided with the county. Quince said such a broad interpretation of the law would lead to an “absurd result.”
