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Originally Posted by Mikeod
Nope, it’s not just an opinion. The author of the bill, Rep. Hage, confirmed that it is not the intent of the law to affect voluntarily agreed upon restrictions and that the deed restrictions every one signed (except perhaps those on the historic side) fall into that category. He intends to introduce language more specifically addressing that distinction in the next session.
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Looking at the history of this legislation it was first introduced into the FL Senate by Sen. Bradley in Nov 2018. A companion bill was introduced in the Fl House by Federoff in Jan 2019. While Hage did vote for the bill he does not seem to have written it. Nor, of course, is his opinion of what it says binding. The interpretation of the law is by the judicial system. You can read the analysis of the effect of this law prepared for the legislature
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County and municipal governments have authority to enact ordinances that are not inconsistent with general law. The Legislature may preempt to the state the regulation of particular subject areas for the purpose of uniformity and promoting important state interests.
The bill prohibits the regulation of vegetable gardens on residential property by a county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the state, except as otherwise provided by law. The bill defines a vegetable garden as a plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers, and vegetables are cultivated for human ingestion. The bill declares void and unenforceable existing ordinances or regulations governing vegetable gardens on residential property. The provisions of the bill do not apply to general regulations not specifically regulating vegetable gardens, such as water use limits during droughts, fertilizer use, or the control of invasive species.
The bill has no fiscal impact on state government. The bill may have a negative fiscal impact on local governments to the extent those governments are assessing fines for violations of ordinances prohibiting vegetable gardens.
The bill has an effective date of July 1, 2019.
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My reading of this, and I am most assuredly not a lawyer, is that local government cannot restrict fruit/vegetable gardens without an extremely good reason. And deed restrictions are not going to cut it. The reason this law was written was because some local communities were restricting and fining Floridians for having vegetable gardens. The state legislature has pre-empted the local government's authority on this issue.