August 22, 2024
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update
Overview
Felicia Kitzmiller practices at the intersection of environmental, land use, and real estate law on projects ranging from single-family docks and agricultural easements to mines, marinas, and energy facilities. Her clients are individuals and large corporations.
As an environmental attorney, Felicia has experience in local, state, and federal environmental permitting, compliance, and permit defense. In the land use realm, Felicia develops entitlement strategy for large industrial, resource extraction, and energy operations. She often navigates compliance with and amendment of complex development approvals that have evolved over decades resulting in a patchwork of vested rights and new obligations. By uniting these often divergent practices, Felicia is able to assist clients in resolving complex land development challenges.
She has also provided clients with advice on a variety of miscellaneous topics including property taxation, public records retention and acquisition, and state road connection regulation.
Areas of Concentration
Environmental & Natural Resources
- Mining operations and resource extraction – Permitting, Compliance, Enforcement Environmental resource permitting, compliance, and enforcement
- CWA Section 404 permitting, compliance, and enforcement
- Protected Species and Habitat Conservation Regulation and Permitting
Land Use and Real Estate
- Sovereign submerged lands authorization
- Due diligence/title analysis
- Severed mineral rights advice and resolution
- Resource extraction development approvals and entitlement
- Easement negotiation and compliance
Notable Experience
- Represents Mosaic, the world’s leading integrated producer of concentrated phosphate and potash, in a variety of environmental and land use matters. Work includes securing environmental permits and local land development orders for new mines and mine expansions as well as counsel in implementation of and compliance with those permits that allows Mosaic to continue operations that provide thousands of Florida jobs and significant amounts of the world’s agricultural fertilizer. Other work includes facilitating the granting and acceptance of a variety of conservation, utility, and access easements and providing counsel on a wide range of land management issues and regulatory issues that arise from being one of the largest land owners in Florida.
- Helped a real estate investment firm take advantage of the lucrative short-term rental market in Florida by providing regulatory and code compliance assistance across multiple jurisdictions with differing demands for this unique land use.
- Assisted a large commercial developer in resolving challenges to state road connection points necessary to ensure safe and profitable access to the state road system. This included successfully defending one connection permit challenge at the Division of Administrative Hearings, with the Department of Transportation, and at the Second District Court of Appeals.
- Assisted in the permitting of the North Florida Resiliency Connection, an electric transmission line through the seven counties and 176 miles of the Panhandle to create service redundancy by Gulf Power. Assistance included navigating the NEPA process and unique challenges related to National Forests and historic preservation evaluations, and local government negotiations regarding comprehensive plan and land development regulation compliance.
Credentials
Education
- J.D., cum laude, Stetson University College of Law, 2018
- Social Justice Certificate
- Journal of Advocacy and the Law, Associate editor
- Moot Court Board
- Order of the Barristers
- B.A., cum laude, University of South Carolina, 2008
Admissions
- Florida
Professional & Community Involvement
- Tallahassee Women Lawyers (TWL), Board of Directors, 2018-Present
- President-Elect, 2024-Present
- Secretary, 2023-2024
- Judicial Reception Director, 2022-2023
- Public Relations Director, 2020-2022
- Meetings Coordinator, 2019-2020
- The Florida Bar Environmental & Land Use Law Section (ELULS)
- Executive Council, 2019-2023
- Co-Editor of The Reporter, 2019-2023
- Tallahassee Bar Association, 2018-Present
- Young Lawyers Section, Board of Directors, 2018-2020
Recognition
- Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, 2023–Present
- Florida Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2022-Present
- American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition, National Semi-finalist, 2017