BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

HB 439 (McClain) revises and amends a variety of elements impacting local government comprehensive planning as well as methodologies in data usage and planning period timeframes. The bill includes local governments must comply with Special Magistrate decisions where land use decisions were challenged by petitioners who were previously denied. Several key terms are redefined such as Density, Intensity, Urban Service Area, and Urban Sprawl. A mandate to use the State Office of Economics, Demographics, and Research as the sole source of data for Comprehensive Planning. Removes the consideration of Levels of Service as a basis for denying a petition. Planned Unit Developments are removed from this section of Florida Statutes. The bill also prohibits the formation of new Design Review Boards unless established before January 1, 2020. The bill has a retroactive date of January 1, 2022. (Chapman)

HB 359 (Duggan) and SB 540 (DiCeglie) would allow for the Capital Improvement Element of Local Comprehensive Plans to have the option to modified administratively if all the projects have been adopted by the project’s appropriate board. Additionally, the bills amend language to allow for the prevailing party in a challenge to recover attorney fees and costs in challenging or defending a plan or plan amendment, including reasonable appellate attorney fees and costs. (Chapman)

HB 41 (Garcia) and SB 856 (Rodriguez) would prohibit an initiative or referendum process for any amendment to local land development regulations. Under current law, the initiative or referendum process is prohibited for any development order and, under certain circumstances, local comprehensive plan or map amendments. The bills would now also prohibit the use of initiatives or referendums for any amendment to land development regulations. The bills are drafted to be remedial in nature and would render null and void any referenda or initiative actions pertaining to land development regulations commenced after June 11, 2011. (Chapman)

HB 235 (Robinson, W.) and SB 350 (Brodeur) provide clarity to local government adoption of a mobility plan and a mobility fee system. A mobility plan identifies various multimodal projects necessary to permit redevelopment, infill projects, and development. A mobility fee is a one-time fee paid by a developer to a local government to cover the costs of the improvements necessary to fully mitigate the development's impact on the transportation system. The bill would prohibit a transportation impact fee or fee that is not a mobility-based fee from being imposed within the area that is within a mobility plan. The bills would require mobility fees to be updated every five years once adopted or updated. The bills outline the comprehensive requirements a local government must follow in implementing the mobility plan and mobility fee system. In addition, the bills make a revision to the impact fee statute that was substantially amended during the 2021 Legislative Session. Current law now limits the amount impact fees can be increased by, and it requires a phase-in period depending on the amount an impact fee is increased by. However, current law also provides an exception to the impact fee increase process by allowing for increases to be greater than the requirements if the governmental entity establishes the need for the increased fee pursuant to the rational nexus test, uses a study (completed within the 12 months preceding the increase) showing that extraordinary circumstances require the additional increase, holds at least two publicly noticed workshops, and adopts the increase by a 2/3 vote. The bills will eliminate this exception to impact fee increases. Therefore, all impact fee increases will have to comply with the increase limits and phase-in requirements provided for in the current law, with no exception. (Cruz)

SB 100 (Garcia) and HB 561 (Mooney, Jr.) – Mangrove Replanting & Restoration

HB 55 (Garcia) and SB 108 (Rodriguez) – Trees and Other Vegetation within Rights-of-Way

SB 54 (Rodriguez) and HB 135 (Mooney) – Land Acquisition Trust Fund (Keys)

HB 125 (McClain) and SB 194 (Hooper) – Utility System Rate Base Values

HB 207 (Edmonds) and SB 592 (Powell) – Notice of Contaminated Water Systems

HB 325 (Valdes), SB 484 (Bradley) and HB 759 (Baker) – Flood Disclosures for Property Sales

SB 716 (Stewart) – Flood Zone Disclosures for Dwelling Units

HB 527 (Skidmore) – Office of the Blue Economy

HB 407 (Shoaf) and SB 702 (Simon) – Apalachicola Bay Area of Critical State Concern

SB 320 (Harrell) and HB 547 (Sirois) – Land Acquisition Trust Fund (Indian River Lagoon)

HB 325 (Valdes) – Flood Disclosures for Residential and Commercial Property Sales

HB 557 (Bell) and SB 602 (Burton) – Land Acquisition Trust Fund (Heartland Headwaters)

HB 713 (McFarland) and SB 742 (Grall) – Administrative Procedures and Permitting Process Review

HB 739 (Cassel) – Disposal of Food Waste Material

SB 724 (Boyd) – Seagrass Restoration Technology Development Initiatives

HB 821 (Yeager) – Renewable Energy Cost Recovery

SB 930 (Stewart) – Excise Tax on Water Extracted for Commercial or Industrial Use

HB 23 (Bell) and SB 162 (Collins) state that water and wastewater facility operators are essential first responders. The bills require the Department of Environmental Protection to issue a license by reciprocity to any applicant who: (1) is a water treatment plant operator, water distribution system operator or domestic wastewater treatment plant operator and who holds an active and valid license from another state, the federal government or tribal government, for which the licensure requirements are comparable to or exceed Florida's licensure requirements; (2) has passed a licensure examination comparable to the Department's licensure examination, subject to approval of the Department; (3) is not the subject of a disciplinary or enforcement action outside of Florida at the time of application; (4) submits a completed application for reciprocal licensure; and (5) remits the application fee. The bills further direct the Department to issue a license by reciprocity to any applicant who: (1) has performed comparable duties while serving in the U.S. armed forces, for which the requirements for performing the duties are comparable to or exceed the Department's licensure requirements; (2) has passed a skills assessment or competency examination comparable to the Department's licensure exam, subject to approval by the Department; (3) is not the subject of any disciplinary or enforcement action at the time of application; (4) submits a completed application to the Department; and (5) remits the application fee. Lastly, the bills authorize the Department, during a declared state of emergency, to issue a temporary operator license by reciprocity under specified conditions and to waive the application fee for such temporary operator license. (O'Hara)

SB 458 (Rodriguez) and HB 827 (Basabe) authorize the Department of Environmental Protection to provide wastewater grant program grants to projects directed at or focused on a water body that is included in the Department's verified list of impaired waters. (O'Hara)

SB 970 (Berman) and HB 957 (Eskamani) amend multiple provisions of law relating to renewable energy. The bills prohibit the drilling, exploration for or the production of oil, gas or other petroleum products on the lands and waters of the state. The bills provide that by 2050, 100% of the electricity used in the state will be generated from 100% renewable energy and that by 2051, the state will have net zero carbon emissions. The bills direct the Office of Energy within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to coordinate with state, regional and local entities to develop a unified statewide renewable energy plan. (O'Hara)

SB 798 (Ingoglia) and HB 975 (Holcomb) provide that a city or county may not prohibit or "unreasonably restrain" a private entity from providing recycling or solid waste services to commercial, industrial or multifamily residential properties. In addition, the bills authorize a local government to require such private entities to obtain a permit, license or non-exclusive franchise but specify the local government's fee may not exceed the local government's administrative cost and that the fee must be commensurate with fees for other industries. The bills prohibit the use of exclusive franchise agreements and restrict a local government from providing its own solid waste or recycling services. Current contracts and franchises in place as of January 2023 would be permitted to continue to their date of expiration, but the bills specify that a local government may not recognize an "evergreen" contract or additional renewal or extension of a contract or agreement. (O'Hara)

HB 661 (Truenow) authorizes counties and municipalities to access sanitary sewer laterals within their jurisdiction to investigate, repair or replace the lateral. A sanitary sewer lateral is a privately owned pipeline connecting a property to the main sewer line. The bill requires municipalities and counties to notify private property owners within a specified timeframe if the government intends to access the owner's sanitary sewer lateral and an anticipated timeframe for the work. It specifies that local governments who establish sanitary sewer lateral programs are legally and financially responsible for all work that is performed and authorizes such programs to use specified state or local funds to evaluate and rehabilitate impaired laterals. (O'Hara)

SB 734 (Polsky) authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to provide grants to coastal counties for saltwater intrusion vulnerability assessments that analyze the effects of saltwater intrusion on a county's water supply, water utility infrastructure, wellfield protection and freshwater supply management. The bill requires the Department to update its comprehensive statewide flood vulnerability and sea level rise data set to include information received from the county saltwater intrusion vulnerability assessments. It directs the Department to provide 50% cost-share funding to counties, up to $250,000, for each grant. It exempts counties with a population of 50,000 or less from the cost-share requirement. (O'Hara)

HB 177 (Gossett-Seldman) and SB 172 (Berman) require the Department of Health to adopt and enforce certain rules and issue health advisories for beach waters and public bathing places if the results of bacteriological water sampling at the site fail to meet health standards. The bills also expand the current law preemption of the issuance of health advisories related to bacteriological sampling of beach waters to include public bathing places. The bills specify that beach waters and public bathing places must close if closure is necessary to protect health and safety and must remain closed until the water quality is restored in accordance with the Department's standards. The bills require the Department to adopt by rule specifications for signage that must be used when it issues a health advisory against swimming in affected beach waters or public bathing places due to elevated levels of specified bacteria and require such signage to be placed at beach access points and access points to public bathing places until the health advisory is removed. The bills specify that municipalities and counties are responsible for posting and maintaining the signage around beaches and public bathing places they own. Finally, the bills require the Department to develop an interagency database for reporting fecal indicator bacteria data and specify that fecal indicator bacteria relating to sampled beach waters and public bathing places must be published in the database within five business days after receipt of the data. (O'Hara)

HB 669 (Fine) and SB 950 (Rodriguez) amend current law relating to Property Assessed Clean Energy programs (PACE), whereby local governments, alone or in partnership with a program administrator, may finance qualifying improvements on residential property relating to energy conservation and efficiency or renewable energy. The bills add nonresidential real property, which includes multifamily residential property composed of five or more dwelling units, to PACE program eligibility. The bills add several consumer protections to the current PACE program, including capping the total of all non-ad valorem assessments plus any mortgage debt on the property at 100% of a residential property's fair market value, requiring a determination that a property owner meets certain creditworthiness requirements, and allowing property owners to cancel a financing agreement within three days of execution. (O'Hara)

SB 336 (Rodriguez) and HB 363 (Mooney) require the Department of Environmental Protection to submit updated reports analyzing the need for regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings or disposable plastic bags to the Legislature. The bills also authorize specified coastal communities to establish pilot programs to regulate single-use plastic products. (O'Hara)

HB 691 (Basabe) and SB 1030 (Trumbull) establish the statewide Covered Electronic Device Recovery Program within the Department of Environmental Protection. A covered electronic device means a computer, portable computer, computer monitor or television. The term does not include devices that are part of a car, an appliance or other equipment, and it does not include phones. The bills specify requirements for a statewide plan for the recycling of covered electronic devices and require counties to submit a plan for the disposal of covered electronic devices by January 2025. In addition, the bills require the owners or operators of industrial, institutional or commercial facilities to dispose of the facilities' covered electronic devices in a permitted reclamation facility beginning January 2026. The bills prohibit any person from disposing of covered electronic devices except at a permitted reclamation facility beginning January 2028. (O'Hara)

SB 7002 (Environment and Natural Resources Committee) ratifies rules relating to the standards for on-site sewage treatment and disposal systems and for domestic wastewater facility planning for facilities expansion, collection/transmission systems and an operation and maintenance manual. State law requires legislative ratification of agency rules exceeding a specified fiscal regulatory impact threshold. (O'Hara)

HB 111 (Hunschofsky) revises current law provisions that require certain public-financed projects and infrastructure undergo a Sea Level Impact Projection Study prior to construction. The bill expands the types of projects and infrastructure subject to the requirement by including "potentially at-risk" projects within an area that is "at-risk due to sea-level rise." The bill defines "at-risk due to sea-level rise" and "potentially at-risk structure or infrastructure." The bill also adds a requirement that a public-financed constructor provide a list of flood mitigation strategies evaluated as part of the design of the potentially at-risk structure or infrastructure and identify the flood mitigation strategies that have been implemented or are being considered as part of the structure or infrastructure design. (O'Hara)

SB 886 (Stewart) repeals a state law preemption of local government regulation of tree pruning, trimming or removal on residential property. (O'Hara).

SB 498 (Stewart) removes the state preemption of local government laws relating to auxiliary containers, wrappings or disposable plastic bags and removes the state preemption of local government laws relating to the use or sale of polystyrene products. (O'Hara)

HB 361 (Robinson, F.) requires a municipality that operates a water or sewer utility providing services to customers in another recipient municipality using a facility or plant located in the recipient municipality to charge customers in the recipient municipality the same rates, fees, and charges it imposes on customers within its own municipal boundaries. (O'Hara)