BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

Florida League of Cities

Resilience Districts (Monitor)

SB 1330 (Calatayud) creates a process for establishing resilience districts in Florida to support local governments’ efforts to mitigate the risk of sea-level rise and increased flooding. The bill defines several relevant terms to support the formation of these citizen-initiated financing districts that are intended to address infrastructure and resilience problems. The bill sets boundaries for resilience districts, defines their acceptable uses, and includes provisions for project management fees. If a local government acts as project manager for a resilience district, the bill authorizes the local government to receive a project management fee of up to 5% of the total cost of design and construction. The bill establishes conditions for local government review and approval of a resilience district and imposes additional obligations on local governments that “inappropriately” deny a petition to establish a district. Additional obligations include but are not limited to a requirement that the local government fund and implement a proposed resiliency project instead of the district. If a proposed district is identical to or shares more than 90% of the geography of any existing special taxing district that serves a similar function, the bill requires dissolution of the special taxing district and reconstitution as a resilience district, with all existing funds serving the special taxing district transferred to the resilience district. Additionally, the bill prescribes the composition and responsibilities of district boards and establishes financial transparency measures. (O’Hara)