On June 26, 2025, the Florida Governor signed the Mitigation Banks bill (SB492/HB1175) into law. This new law significantly updates the state's wetland mitigation banking program, impacting how mitigation credits are obtained, released, and tracked statewide.
Under Florida and federal law, wetland mitigation is required to offset unavoidable impacts to wetlands resulting from development, the most common form of mitigation being wetland mitigation bank credits. Prior to the passage of this law, mitigation credits had to be obtained from within geographically restricted regions known as mitigation service areas, leading to significant shortfalls of mitigation credits in some regions. However, the Mitigation Banks new law allows the purchase of mitigation credits from mitigation banks outside of the mitigation service area in regions where an insufficient number or types of credits are available. It is important to note that this change only applies to state permits and does not bind the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to accept out-of-service area mitigation credits for impacts to federal wetlands.
This new law also revises the credit release issuance schedule for mitigation banks, which could potentially accelerate the release of credits from some mitigation banks. Additionally, it authorizes mitigation bank applicants to propose alternative release schedules.
The new law took effect on July 1, 2025. A copy of the new law can be found here. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about this law and how it may impact your projects.
