In this episode: The largest private landowner in Florida is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Better known as the Mormon Church, it owns more than 600,000 acres around the state. About half of its land holdings are cattle ranchlands east of Orlando — where the the church has long-term plans to build the equivalent of a new city of 500,000 people. But voters in Orlando recently approved new rules meant to slow suburban sprawl on rural land. So the Mormon Church turned to Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature to step in. And the church had help.

Show notes

The bills discussed in this show:

Senate Bill 1118 — Land Use and Development Regulations

Senate Bill 180 — Emergencies

Time is a flat circle:

Lobbyists for developers pushed Florida lawmakers to block rules meant to save rural lands from sprawl

The top 10 landowners in Florida:

Land Lords

Reach more about the Mormon Church’s long-term development plans in central Florida (stories from the August 2017 issue of Florida Trend magazine):

Ranchland to rooftops in central Florida

Deseret Ranch — the Land

Rural Florida’s players and their projects

Tavistock’s Role in Developing Rural Florida

Duda's agribusiness development reach

This the second episode to come out of public records we obtained after the end of the Florida Legislature’s 2025 session. Here’s the first episode:

Florida Passed Bills for Pigeon Shooters?! (YouTube)

A Republican megadonor got caught hosting a pigeon shoot. Then he got Florida politicians to change the law. (audio)

And here’s the podcast mentioned in this show about the erosion of home rule happening Florida and other Republican-controlled states:

Your Town, Their Rules: How States Are Stealing Local Power (YouTube)

Your town, their rules (audio)

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