BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 732 (Bracy) increases the amount of time a law enforcement agency must retain body camera recordings from 90 days to 365 days. (Taggart)

CS/SB 522 (Diaz) and CS/HB 219 (Fischer) change current law relating to vacation rentals, also known as short-term rentals (STRs). The bills would:

•Preempt to the state the regulation of STRs, including licensure and inspections.

•Clarify the definition of an advertising platform to capture online marketplaces.

•Allow a “grandfathered” city to amend its short-term rental regulations if the amendment makes the regulation less restrictive.

•Undo any local registration, inspection or licensing requirements specific to STRs adopted since 2014.

•Require that any ordinances (noise, parking, trash, etc.), must be applied uniformly to all residential properties, regardless of how the property is being used.

•Require the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to maintain vacation rental property license information in an accessible electronic format.

•Require advertising platforms to verify a property’s license number prior to publishing its advertisement on its platform and every quarter thereafter.

•Require advertising platforms to quarterly provide the department with the physical

address of the vacation rental properties that advertise on their platforms.

•Impose a duty on advertising platforms to collect and remit taxes in relation to the

rental of a vacation rental property through its platform.

•Establish requirements that advertising platforms adopt an anti-discrimination

policy and inform their users of the public lodging discrimination prohibition found in current law.

•Clarify that the provision of the bill shall not supersede any current or future community association-governing document.

The bills were amended to require sexual predators to notify local law enforcement if they will be staying for 24 hours or more in a short-term rental. Additionally, they were amended to allow for the collection of tourist development taxes. SB 522 specifies that advertising platforms must comply with any applicable merchant business tax receipts on short-term rentals. (Taggart)

HB 6009 (Sabatini) preempts cities, counties and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles from installing, maintaining or utilizing red light cameras effective July 1, 2024. (Branch)

HB 267 (Roach) and SB 426 (Boyd) prohibit local governments from restricting or regulating commerce; the size and types of vessels; the source or type of cargo; or the number, origin or nationality of passengers in state seaports. (Branch)

SB 856 (Hutson) and HB 839 (Fabrico) expressly preempt the regulation of the construction of energy infrastructure to the state. “Energy infrastructure” means infrastructure used to support the production, import, storage and distribution of natural gas, petroleum, electricity, biomass, renewable fuels, hydrogen, solar, wind or geothermal energy. The bills prohibit a local government from implementing or enforcing any policy, resolution or ordinance that has the effect of prohibiting, restricting or requiring the construction of new or the expansion, upgrade or repair of existing energy infrastructure. The bills also prohibit local governments from imposing requirements that are more stringent than state law. (O’Hara)

SB 1008 (Hutson) and HB 761 (Overdorf) provide that solar facilities (including solar farms and related buildings, transmission lines and substations) are a permitted (as-of-right) use in local government comprehensive agricultural land use categories and certain agricultural zoning districts within unincorporated areas. The bills require solar facilities to comply with minimal criteria such as setbacks and buffering applicable to similar uses within the agricultural district. The bills authorize counties to adopt ordinances specifying buffer and landscaping requirements for solar facilities if the requirements do not exceed requirements for other permitted uses within an agricultural district. The bills also include solar facilities with capacities of less than 150 megawatts within the current definition of “electrical power plant” in the Power Plant Siting Act and allow such solar facilities the option of whether to use the Act’s certification process for siting the facilities. (O’Hara)

HB 53 (DiCeglie) and SB 1076 (Brodeur) require local governments to utilize competitive bidding processes when contracting city, town or county public works projects. The bills also block a local government from training employees in designated programs with a restricted curriculum or from a single source and local ordinances that require things like apprenticeship programs. (Branch)

HB 587 (Snyder) revises requirements for minimum radio signal strength for fire department communications; requires the state fire marshal to adopt minimum radio coverage design criteria for public safety emergency communications systems and minimum standards for interior radio coverage and signal strength in buildings; requires a local jurisdiction's public safety emergency communications system be certified as meeting or exceeding certain criteria before new and existing buildings are required to install or to be assessed for two-way radio communications enhancement systems; requires local jurisdictions to produce radio coverage heatmaps and prohibits local jurisdictions from withholding certificates of occupancy under certain circumstances. (Taggart)

CS/SB 400 (Rodrigues) and HB 913 (McClure) prohibit a city, after receiving a public record request, from filing an action for declaratory judgement against the individual or entity making the request. The bills would prevent cities from seeking clarification from the courts as to whether a record is exempt or exempt and confidential. (Taggart)

HB 215 (Sabatini) prohibits a local government from using public funds to retain a lobbyist to represent the local government before the legislative or executive branch. It would permit a full-time employee of local government to register as a lobbyist and represent the local government before the legislative or executive branch. The bill would also prohibit any person, except a full-time employee, from accepting public funds for lobbying. It provides for the filing of complaints with the Florida Commission on Ethics and the filing of civil actions for injunctive relief, as well as sanctions and recovery of attorney fees by prevailing parties. (O’Hara)

HB 439 (Fine) and SB 810 (Gruters) prohibit an agency or local governmental entity from purchasing or entering into a contract for any good made in or that contains at least 25% or more parts that were produced in China. The bills also prohibit a local governmental entity from purchasing any good or service made, sold or provided by Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple or Alphabet, Inc. (Taggart)

SB 1128 (Hutson) and HB 919 (Tomkow) prohibit a local government from enacting or enforcing an ordinance or resolution that restricts or prohibits, or has the effect of restricting or prohibiting, a property owner, tenant or utility service customer from choosing his or her electric utility service regardless of energy source. The bills do not restrict a local government’s power to levy taxes on public services or the right of a municipality to receive revenue from any public utility. (O’Hara)

SB 268 (Perry) expressly preempts the licensing of occupations to the state. The bill defines occupation to include a paid job, work, trade, employment or profession and defines licensing to include any training, education, test, certification, registration, procedure or license that are required for a person to perform an occupation. The bill provides limited exceptions for specified local licenses and any local government licensing of occupations that was expressly authorized by general law. The bill will prohibit a local government from requiring a person to obtain a license for a job scope that does not substantially correspond to the job scope of certain contractor categories set forth in Chapter 489, Florida Statutes. In addition, the bill will authorize local governments to issue journeyman licenses in specified trades. (Cruz)

HB 115 (Fabricio) provides that an individual with a valid active local license may work in any local government jurisdiction without having to obtain additional local licensing, take additional examinations or pay additional local licensing fees. The bill explicitly states that this multi-jurisdictional approval does not impede a local government's ability to collect business taxes from businesses operating within the local government's boundaries. Local governments' disciplinary jurisdiction for licenses within their jurisdictions is also retained. The bill details the process for a local government to execute its disciplinary jurisdiction. (Cruz)

HB 187 (McCurdy) and SB 878 (Thurston) prohibit law enforcement agencies from purchasing certain surplus military equipment. The bills also prohibit law enforcement agencies from using tear gas and kinetic impact munitions on an assembly or protest unless the gathering has been declared unlawful. (Taggart)

HB 337 (DiCeglie) and SB 750 (Gruters) are comprehensive impact fee bills. Of concern to cities, the bills would cap impact fee increases to no more than 3% annually. The bills would allow a local government to collect an impact fee only if it has a planned or funded capital improvements within the applicable impact fee assessment district at the time the fee is collected. Lastly, the bills require the submittal of an affidavit by local governments that collect impact fees attesting that all impact fees were collected and expended by the local government in compliance with the bills.

HB 403 (Giallombardo) and SB 266 (Perry) provide that local governments may not enact or enforce any ordinance, regulation or policy or take any action to license or otherwise regulate a home-based business in a manner that is different from other businesses in a local government’s jurisdiction. The bill authorizes business owners to challenge local government actions and authorizes the prevailing party to recover specified attorney fees and costs. (Cruz)

SB 88 (Brodeur) revises the Right to Farm Act to incorporate agritourism activities within the scope of the Act. The Right to Farm Act specifies that no farm operation that has been in operation for one year or more and that was not a nuisance at the time of its establishment shall be a public or private nuisance if the farm operation conforms to generally accepted agricultural and management practices.  In addition, the bill provides limitations on liability from nuisance, trespass or tort actions that may be filed relating to farming or agritourism activities. It specifies that a farm may not be held liable for operations alleged to cause harm outside of the farm unless the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the claim arises out of conduct that does not comply with state and federal environmental laws, regulations, or best management practices. The bill further provides that a nuisance action may not be filed unless the property affected by the activity is located within one-half mile of the activity.  The bill limits compensatory damages in a private nuisance action to the reduction in fair market value of the affected property. It prohibits the recovery of punitive damages for nuisance actions under specified conditions. The bill requires payment of attorney fees and costs by plaintiffs who fail to prevail in a nuisance action. (O’Hara)

SB 656 (Brandes) makes various changes to elections procedures including voter registration, voter identification and polling locations. In addition, the bill expressly preempts a local government from imposing any limitation on contributions to a political committee or electioneering communications organization or limitation on any expenditures for an electioneering organization or an independent expenditure. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 60 (Bradley) and HB 883 (Overdorf) would prohibit code enforcement officers from investigating and enforcing a potential code violation if the complaint is received anonymously. The bill requires any person who reports a violation of a code or ordinance to provide their name and address to the local government before any enforcement proceedings occur. CS/SB 60 was amended to still allow for enforcement of anonymous complaints if they pose an imminent threat to public health, safety, or welfare or imminent destruction of habitat or sensitive resources. (Taggart)