Friend-of-the-court brief: FL request for a partial stay of a Feb. 15 ruling by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss.

Land development limbo - 1,000 or more State of Florida permit applications are now in limbo. Time is money, and many applicants are now in fear of cost over-runs.

Entities that filed the brief include the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, the Association of Florida Community Developers, the Florida Home Builders Association, the home builders Lennar Corp. and KB Home, as well as the Mosaic phosphate company. In their brief, the business groups and companies disputed the Justice Department position and warned of economic fallout from Moss’ ruling.

The state’s filing said the ruling freezes permit applications that are “now in regulatory limbo with no clear timeline or expectation for a permit decision. This includes pending permit applications for roads and bridges, hospital construction projects, school buildings and facilities, affordable housing, military base projects, power grid reliability projects (including construction of new power generation facilities and transmission lines), and various projects necessary to improve water quality in the Everglades, just to name a handful of examples.”

“Large communities in particular require coordination of an astonishing number of permits, entitlements, and contracts,” the brief said. “Delay of any essential permit snowballs through all subsequent planning and coordination aspects. The result: production delays, which increase costs for all parties — large and small — in the construction industry.”