In the 1960s, Key Haven Associated Enterprises began dredging and filling submerged land in the Florida Keys to build a 151-lot residential subdivision, and had largely finished and sold most of the lots by the end of 1972. Then Florida enacted new environmental and water-management laws, and as of January 1, 1973, the state barred Key Haven from completing the project. Key Haven never challenged that order at the time.
Instead, in 2018 — 45 years later — Key Haven applied to dredge and fill five of the unfinished lots. When the Department of Environmental Protection denied the permit, Key Haven sued, arguing the denial amounted to a regulatory taking of its property under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Lucas framework.
The trial court entered summary judgment for the state on statute-of-limitations grounds, and the First District affirmed: the clock on any taking claim ran from the original 1973 order halting the project, not from the 2018 permit denial that simply reaffirmed it.
Citation: Key Haven Associated Enterprises, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, No. 1D2025-0660 (Fla. 1st DCA Aug. 26, 2026).