Florida Court of Appeal Decides Land Use Claim involving Seminole Tribe

Here is the opinion in Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Hendry County, Fla.

An excerpt:

On September 14, 2011, the Seminole Tribe of Florida filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the circuit court seeking to quash Ordinance 2011-07 adopted by Hendry County on May 24, 2011. The Ordinance rezoned 3127 acres of land from general agriculture to a Planned Unit Development (PUD) for the purpose of constructing a natural gas power plant and solar energy farm. The Seminole Tribe argued that the County’s adoption of the Ordinance departed from the essential requirements of the law because it violated the Local Development Code (LDC) and because the County had avoided its responsibility to review the project’s compatibility with the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation and consistency with the County’s Comprehensive Plan. The circuit court denied the petition, and the Seminole Tribe now seeks second-tier certiorari review in this court. We deny the petition.