Overview
Jeff is a legal and technical expert on several environmental regulatory subjects, procedures and resulting strategic guidance.
- Chambers USA 2024
Jeff is a Shareholder in the firm’s Tampa office with over 20 years of experience serving private and public sector clients throughout Florida in the areas of environmental, land development and administrative law. Jeff represents clients before federal, state and local environmental agencies on large development-related projects and contamination remediation projects throughout Florida.
As a former managing attorney in the South Florida Water Management District’s Office of Counsel and a former senior attorney in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Office of General Counsel, Jeff brings a unique perspective on challenges related to environmental resource and consumptive use permitting, compliance and enforcement, water quality/water supply issues, sovereign submerged lands, and power plant siting.
Areas of Concentration
- Environmental resource permitting, compliance, enforcement and litigation
- Consumptive use permitting, compliance, enforcement and litigation
- Water quality/water supply
- Administrative law, DOAH litigation
- Protected species/habitat conservation planning
- Wetlands regulation and permitting
- State lands and sovereign submerged lands
- Hazardous waste and substances/contamination remediation
- Brownfields Redevelopment
- Cultural resources
- Land development
- Land use and zoning
- Comprehensive planning and plan amendments
- Power plant siting
- Petroleum regulation
- Mitigation banking
- Coastal regulation, permitting and litigation
- Utilities (wastewater, reuse, potable and irrigation water)
Representative Experience
- Represented the first and leading medical cannabis company in the state of Florida in obtaining an Environmental Resource Permit in one week from initial contact using the Suwanee River Water Management District accelerated permit program. The permit was obtained for a 1,000,000 square foot automated growing facility (the largest, known cannabis growing facility in the world), and twelve 24,000 square foot grow facilities housed on a 93-acre property in Madison County, Florida.
- Prevailed in state administrative proceeding (Florida Division of Administrative Hearings). Collier represented All Aboard Florida in an administrative hearing challenging an Environmental Resource Permit Modification issued by the South Florida Water Management District. Following a lengthy proceeding, including a two-week hearing, the presiding Administrative Law Judge issued a Recommended Order which found for All Aboard Florida on all issues and endorsed the permit under review. The permit was for a portion of the aforementioned express passenger rail system which will soon connect the four largest urban population centers in Southern and Central Florida. The Recommended Order, which was adopted by the South Florida Water Management District in its Final Order, contains the most thorough analysis to date on the issue of whether the first element of the public interest test permits consideration of non-environmental factors and provides more predictability and clarity as to the application of the public interest criteria.
- Represented an affordable housing developer in obtaining a brownfield area designation for an affordable housing project in the City of Tallahassee during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team coordinated an in-person and virtual community meeting that included a team of consultants and members of the public as well as two virtual public hearings to obtain the brownfield area designation. The designation allowed the developer to take advantage of both state environmental clean-up programs and financial incentives.
- Counsel in resolving an annexation challenge and an administrative challenge to a comprehensive plan amendment for a coalition of developer clients with projects at risk due to a long-running dispute between Alachua County and the City of Gainesville. Successfully negotiated with the County and the City for a global settlement allowing clients to move forward with projects that had been stalled for over six months and which were at risk of being delayed for another year or more.
Professional & Community Involvement
- American Bar Association
- Association of Florida Community Developers (AFCD)
- Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce
- Habitat for Humanity Site Selection and Property Committees, 2005-2008
- Hillsborough County Bar Association
- Leadership Tallahassee Class XXXIV
- Leadership Tampa Bay Class of 2018
- Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, 2007-2011
- Palm Beach County Bar Association, Chair, Environmental & Land Use Law Committee, 2008-2012
- Palm Beach County Planning Congress, 2010-2013
- Real Estate Investment Council, Inc. (REIC), Tampa Bay
- Tampa Bay Association of Environmental Professionals
- Tampa Bay Builders Association
- The Florida Bar, Environmental and Land Use Section Executive Council
- The Florida Bar’s ELULS Reporter, Co-Editor, 2010-2013
- U.S. Green Building Council LEED AP, 2008-2011
- Urban Land Institute, Tampa Bay
- Leaders Council
- Urban Plan Volunteer
Recognition
- Chambers USA, Environment (Florida), 2021-Present
- The Best Lawyers in America®, 2023
- AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
Publications & Presentations
Events:
Overview of Regulations and Emerging Issues Affecting Imperiled Species
38th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School|July 2024
Land Development News Update, Publications:
What's Developing | Fall 2023
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update|October 2023
Events:
Overview of Regulations and Emerging Issues Affecting Imperiled Species
37th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School|July 2023
Land Development News Update, Publications:
Five Important Environmental Topics You Should Know About
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update|February 2023
Land Development News Update, Publications:
What's Developing | Summer 2022
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update|September 2022
Events:
Overview of Regulations and Emerging Issues Affecting Imperiled Species
36th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School|July 2022
Land Development News Update, Publications:
USFWS to Revise Critical Habitat Rules For Manatees
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update|July 2022
Government Affairs News Update, Land Development News Update, Publications:
What’s Developing | Spring 2022
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update|May 2022
Newsroom
Firm Announcements:
35 Stearns Weaver Miller Lawyers and 11 Practice Areas Ranked In Chambers USA 2024
June 2024
Firm Announcements:
29 Stearns Weaver Miller Lawyers in 11 Practice Areas Ranked In Chambers USA 2023
June 2023
Firm Announcements:
28 Stearns Weaver Miller Lawyers in 12 Practice Areas Ranked In Chambers USA 2022
June 2022
Firm Announcements:
29 Stearns Weaver Miller Lawyers in 12 Practice Areas Ranked In Chambers USA 2021
May 2021
Firm Announcements, Land Development News Update:
Stearns Weaver Miller Launches Executive Order Permit Extension Tool For Tracking States Of Emergency
May 2017
Firm Announcements:
Land Development, Zoning & Environmental Shareholder Jeffrey A. Collier Joins Tampa Office
March 2017