In an unsigned editorial last month opposing Florida bills S1340 and HB7, the Lehigh Acres Citizen described a recent situation in which local residents were outraged to learn about zoning changes that normally would have been noticed in a newspaper, but weren’t.

In its opinion piece, the Lee County paper noted that proponents of moving notices to government websites say it would save money.

If government-website notice is cheaper, the Citizen asked, why isn’t it better? It then answered that question by describing what happened last year when the city of Cape Coral was allowed to overhaul its comprehensive plan without publishing a notice.

None of the multitude of changes had to be individually advertised in print as virtually all public notices currently must be: Due to scope of the projet (sic), the city got to use a statutory exemption.

Numerous property owners and nearby residents only became aware of major changes in zoning or land use density through word-of-mouth from others who happened to have attended a routine planning meeting or from subsequent media accounts.

The outrage was immediate — and vocal — from residential property owners who learned that that big vacant lot across the street could now be developed into a shopping center or a multi-building apartment complex.

The exception that pre-empted the requirement for the advertising of the individual changes — even the most major ones — is typical of the Tallahassee fog produced annually to cloud Government in the Sunshine protections.