Editor’s Note: Florida legislators are headed back to Tallahassee this week for a four-day special session. For the second time this year, House District 113, which includes the North Grove, will not be represented. That seat remains empty. Voters in the South and West Grove will be represented by State Rep. Demi Busatta (R-114), whose low profile has some residents wondering: Who is she?
As an elected member of the state legislature representing Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and South Miami, State Rep. Demi Busatta (R-114) co-sponsored the controversial Live Local Act that allows developers to bypass local zoning laws.
But when a group of concerned residents met to discuss how the legislation would affect Coconut Grove, Busatta was a no-show – despite an invitation.
Earlier this year, when a state lawmaker from Miami Beach sought to wrest control of the Coconut Grove Playhouse away from Miami-Dade County, Busatta was missing in action again, playhouse advocates say.
Now in her third term, Busatta’s lack of visibility hasn’t endeared her to some of her Coconut Grove constituents.
Though it’s fair to say most registered voters would have a hard time naming their Florida House representative, in Busatta’s case, some feel as if they’ve been ghosted.
Max Pearl, a film writer who has fought for years to save the playhouse, said he chose to get behind State Rep. Fabian Basabe’s (R-106) failed bid to block the county’s playhouse revival plan because others weren’t stepping up.
“The representatives of Coconut Grove were not responding and someone mentioned Basabe. There was a void. Why did he come in? Because people were not fulfilling their job,” Pearl said.
The Spotlight tried to reach Busatta repeatedly for this story, but she chose not to respond to our emails, phone calls, or a detailed list of questions submitted in writing to her legislative aide. That’s been a pattern with Busatta, who also didn’t respond to the Spotlight’s interview requests when she ran for reelection in 2024.
Read more: Florida House District 114 Showdown
But despite her low profile and lack of engagement, Busatta does have her supporters.
South Miami Mayor Javier Fernandez, who once represented House District 114, said despite his political differences with Busatta, “she’s been a good sponsor for us and gotten us more than $1 million most years.”
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Vicki Lopez, who served alongside Busatta in Tallahassee before being appointed to the county commission, said she considers the representative to be a “mentor” who was quickly adopted by House leadership.
Lopez, who as a House member was known for showing up when local issues were debated, said she doesn’t believe Busatta’s lack of visibility translates to her effectiveness as a legislator.
“I can’t speak for why she has a different style than I do. But she’s had a very charmed legislative career and she’s always been liked by leadership. She’s been incredibly effective,” said Lopez. “She puts her head down and gets the work done.”
Busatta’s Background
Born in Cape Coral on Florida’s west coast, Busatta, now 35, graduated from Florida State University and went on to intern with the homicide division of the State Attorney’s office for Collier, Hendry, Glades, Lee and Charlotte counties.
After serving as a legislative aide to State Senator Anitere Flores, Busatta won her first term in the state’s House of Representatives in 2020. She was married to former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, who now serves as the ambassador to Panama in the Trump Administration. The two have since divorced.
Though Busatta may lack name recognition locally, she has certainly been involved in her share of controversial legislation. And though she receives high marks from conservative political groups for her voting patterns, she’s crossed party lines at times on some important issues.
Busatta sponsored a plan to address sea-level rise and a bill that created a statewide office of resilience. She’s advocated for affordable housing. And she voted against the governor’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bolsters book banning.
Still, some of her most consequential votes have been along conservative party lines. She co-sponsored the state’s Live Local Act, a bill that circumvents many of South Florida’s residential and commercial zoning laws. She pushed for a homeowner’s Bill of Rights that limits lawsuit amounts against insurance companies. And she’s voted for statewide abortion and book bans.
Busatta, who chairs the legislature’s Higher Education Budget Subcommittee, has voted to restrict resident’s petition initiatives and to “End the Hoax of Climate Change.”
Sean Foreman, a professor of political science at Barry University who doesn’t live in Coconut Grove but does live in Busatta’s district – said he’s not surprised that few people reached for this story could name their state representative. He’s also not surprised that Busatta has taken on some less-than-conservative issues.
“There are 120 of them (state representatives),” Foreman said. “They (House members) kind of change more often now. So, you really don’t see them often.”
The political science professor referred to District 114 – which stretches from Palmetto Bay in the south to West Miami and the Dolphin Expressway in the north – as a “kind of a swingy district.”
J.S. Rashid, a semi-retired real estate broker in Coconut Grove who is active politically and was a member of the Coconut Grove Local Development Corp., wasn’t aware that Busatta represented his district. But he said that didn’t surprise him.
“There are so many distractions,” he said. “It’s rare anyone can name their representative unless, maybe, they have real big political aspirations.”
Live Local Act, Book Banning
Though Busatta has voted on several issues at odds with the First Amendment, like banning protestors outside the governor’s mansion and voting to ban any discussion on race or gender in schools and workplaces, it’s her co-sponsorship of the Live Local Act that has stirred the most passion with Grove residents.
The 2023 law seeks to increase the supply of workforce housing, but at a cost to local communities. The bill provides hundreds of millions of dollars in tax exemptions and other incentives to developers willing to build multi-family units in areas zoned for commercial or mixed-use.
The bill also preempts local zoning restrictions if 40% percent of units remain affordable for three decades. It’s a bill that is causing havoc throughout South Florida, in municipalities like El Portal and Miami Beach.
It also has Grove residents fearing runaway growth in their backyard. That’s because city commissioners, in response to Live Local, voted in November to allow developers to build twice as many housing units in some areas in exchange for paying into a city account that would help mitigate climate change and sea-level rise.
The bill, originally aimed at the city’s Edgewater district, could allow rapid growth in other parts of the city as well. And that has Grove residents fearing massive growth in neighborhoods already plagued by traffic congestion and flooding.
John Dolson, a geologist and adjunct professor at the University of Miami who lives in the South Grove, said he gathered residents in late 2024 to discuss the new Live Local Act. And despite invites, Busatta didn’t show up.
Dolson is not a fan of the Live Local Act, saying it creates unnecessary density without enough infrastructure and preempts long-established guardrails in neighborhoods.
“She didn’t even acknowledge an email,” Dolson says of Busatta. “We’re surviving by the skin of our chinny chin chins right now. The problem is it’s a one-size-fits-all solution that overrides all local issues. And I have a problem with that.”
Don’t be fooled by the Live Local Act. “Affordable housing” is being used as political camouflage to favor the developers.
Follow the money. Politicians who receive campaign contributions from developers are willing to sell out our quality of life to keep the money coming in.
The Live Local Act is among the worst laws ever passed in the State of Florida.
We have government of developers, for developers, by developers.