BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 496 (Perry) and CS/HB 535 (Snyder) expand the criteria for the installation of low-voltage electric fences in areas not considered to be zoned exclusively for single-family or multifamily residential use if the area is within more than one zoning category. Of concern to local government, the bills prohibit the regulation of low-voltage alarms in any manner that is more restrictive than state law. (Branch)

SB 648 (DiCeglie) and HB 377 (Borrero) allow a person who holds a valid vehicle-for-hire license or permit from any city or county the ability to operate a vehicle for hire in another city or county without being subject to additional licensing or permitting requirements. This preemption would not apply to transportation services to and from an airport. (Branch)

SB 1094 (Martin) specifies that beginning July 1, 2024, the Department of Health must get approval from the Legislature before adding any new vaccines for school attendance. The bill also prohibits the department, state agencies, local governments and political subdivisions from participating in or employing any digital health identification registry or similar mechanism for tracking the health data of residents without prior approval from the Legislature. The bill also introduces a way for people to claim an exemption from vaccination if an FDA-approved vaccine is not available, allowing individuals to make this claim for themselves or their dependents without facing additional conditions from employers or other entities. The bill prohibits certain mandatory vaccination policies during public health emergencies without legislative approval. (Branch)

SB 1174 (Ingoglia) and HB 1451 (Michael) prohibit a local government from accepting as identification any identification card or document that is issued by any person, entity or organization that knowingly issues the identification cards or documents to individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States. This prohibition does not extend to any documentation that is issued by or on behalf of the Federal Government. (Wagoner)

HB 1099 (Melo) and CS/SB 676 (Bradley) are comprehensive food delivery platform bills. Of concern to cities, the bills expressly preempt the regulation of the food delivery platforms to the state. A food delivery platform is defined in the bills as a third-party company that picks up food from restaurants to deliver to consumers. (Branch)

HB 1419 (Tuck) and CS/SB 1420 (Burgess) are comprehensive bills that amend requirements for comprehensive plan amendments and revise the roles of the Florida Department of Commerce (formerly Department of Economic Opportunity). The bills mandate that local governments hold a second public hearing to decide whether to adopt comprehensive plan amendments within 180 days after receiving agency comments. Failure to hold this hearing and adopt the amendments within this timeframe will result in the amendments being deemed withdrawn, unless an extension is agreed upon with the state land planning agency and any affected person who provided comments. The bills require local governments to transmit all adopted amendments, along with supporting data and analysis, to the state land planning agency and any other agency or local government that provided timely comments within 10 working days after the final adoption hearing. If the local government does not meet this 10-working-day deadline, the amendments will be deemed withdrawn. CS/SB 1420 was amended to extend the repayment period of the Local Government Emergency Revolving Bridge Loan Program, and any existing loans executed before February 1, 2024, from five to 10 years. (Cruz)

HB 459 (Rudman) and SB 402 (Yarborough) revise the criteria of the State Health Officer extending a statewide public health emergency to require approval by a two-thirds majority vote of the Legislature. HB 459 prohibits the State Health Officer from issuing a blanket closure on government buildings and services, churches and altering election procedures and protocols. However, any action that will affect an entire group must be authorized on a case-by-case basis, with each case being afforded all rights of due process. (Branch)

SB 506 (Wright) adds code enforcement officers to the list of covered professionals under Section 784.07, Florida Statutes, which provides penalties for assault, battery, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery when the offense is knowingly committed against a law enforcement officer or other specified professionals who are engaged in the lawful performance of his or her duties. (Wagoner)

CS/HB 981 (Bankson) makes significant changes to the regulation of private airports, specifically addressing vertiports and powered-lift aircraft. The bill does the following:

Vertiport Approval:

•Requires private airport owners or lessees intending to operate vertiports for powered-lift aircraft to obtain a powered-lift aircraft endorsement from the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Department of Transportation Department

•Mandates the DOT to designate a subject matter expert for advanced air mobility, focusing on powered-lift aircraft and electrification of aviation.

•Requires the DOT to provide annual reports to the Governor and Legislature on advanced air mobility industry status, technological advances, federal regulations and recommendations for land use compatibility around vertiports.

•Mandates the DOT to serve as a resource for local governments and stakeholders in powered-lift aircraft and vertiport development.

Advanced Air Mobility Test Site:

•Designates the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority as the advanced air mobility test site for the state. (Branch)

SB 1774 (Powell) and HB 1477 (Williams) require that parks, youth recreation or sports facilities owned or operated by a local government have a functioning automated external defibrillator (AED) on premises at all times. The bills also specify that employees and volunteers at these facilities have proper training. (Wagoner)

SB 854 (Martin) and HB 1643 (Rommel) require airport authorities, special districts created by the Legislature, to only allow aircraft to land if they meet Federal Aviation Administration noise standards and weight limits set by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Authorized aircraft within the weight range of 75,000 to 125,000 pounds may face restrictions on landing frequency, increased landing fees, or higher charges for hangar and storage facilities. The airport authority can request documentation confirming an aircraft's compliance before its first landing and annually thereafter. (Branch)

HB 119 (Melo) and SB 188 (Brodeur) – Trespass on Commercial Agricultural Property

HB 997 (Gottlieb) – Expedited Foreclosure Proceedings for Abandoned Real Property

SB 1370 (Torres) – Abandoned Residential Real Property

HB 1229 (Porras) and SB 1068 (Rodriguez) – Marketable Record Title to Real Property

HB 1621 (Beltran) authorizes municipalities to impose an enhanced fine for the unauthorized demolition of a structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places or designated as a local historic landmark if the code enforcement board or special magistrate makes specific findings. Fines imposed may not exceed an amount that is 20% of the property appraiser’s evaluation of the fair market value. (Cruz)

HB 397 (Cross) and SB 404 (Rouson) expand the urban agricultural pilot project to allow for commercial agricultural use of residential property in certain circumstances. (Cruz)

CS/HB 1647 (Roach) and CS/SB 1526 (Avila) restricts local governments from prohibiting, restricting, or preventing the demolition of nonconforming or unsafe structures. The bills authorize the demolition of a structure and automatic replacement without requiring the new structure to have historical features or characteristics. The bills also prohibit local governments from imposing additional restrictions on the demolition or redevelopment that depart from existing requirements for a similarly situated parcel. The bills specify the provisions do not apply to a structure individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places or a contributing structure listed prior to 2000, a single-family home, or a structure located on a barrier island in a municipality with a population less than 10,000, which has at least six city blocks that are not located within flood zones V, VE, AO or AE, as identified in Flood Insurance Rate Map issued by FEMA. (Cruz)

HB 1635 (Steele) and SB 1796 (Burgess) require local governments to provide compensation for a nonmonetary exaction equal to the fair market value of the exaction imposed. The bills require a local government that adopts and collects impact fees by ordinance to ensure the impact fee is collected only if the relevant property receives the service for which the fee was assessed. The bills also require local governments to establish impact fee zones or districts to assist local governments in ensuring the fee is expended to provide additional capital facilities within the appropriate zone or district. HB 1635 places the maximum amount an impact fee may charge depending on the type of development in state law. The bill also prohibits the imposition of both an impact fee and a mobility fee for master planned unit developments and planned home developments. (Cruz)

SB 1184 (Ingoglia) and CS/HB 1221 (McClain) are comprehensive bills relating to land use and development regulations. The bills amend various regulations relating to comprehensive plans. The bill would restrict optional elements of a comprehensive plan from containing a policy restricting density and intensity. The bills amend definitions of intensity, density, urban service area and urban sprawl to promote the construction of additional single-family, two-family and fee simple townhomes. The bills require local governments to adopt minimum lot sizes with single-family, two-family and fee simple townhouse zoning districts to accommodate the maximum density authorized in the comprehensive plan. The bills require local governments to adopt infill redevelopment regulations to administratively approve the development of infill single-family, two-family and fee simple townhouses. HB 1221 also contains a provision that would require the automatic rezoning of agricultural land for single family housing in certain circumstances. This provision is not found in SB 1184. CS/HB 1221 was significantly amended with a delete-all amendment in the House Local Administration, Federal Affairs and Special Districts subcommittee. Relevant to municipal operation, the amendment inserted a provision that preempts local regulation relating to the building of new self-storage facilities and removed provisions related to the rezoning of agricultural enclaves. (Cruz)

CS/HB 1177 (Duggan) and SB 1110 (DiCeglie) amend various provisions related to land development regulations in Florida. The bills amend the Community Planning Act to require modifications to transportation concurrency system requirements for local governments, change to the adoption of impact fees by special districts, and adjustment provisions governing credits against local impact fees. The bills also address revisions in procedures regarding local government review of changes to previously approved developments of regional impact (DRIs), specifying certain types of changes that won't necessitate local government review. The bills allow for modifications to multimodal pathways in previously approved DRIs under specific conditions and outline that certain changes to comprehensive plan policies and land development regulations won't apply to developments with vested rights. Additionally, the legislation revises the criteria that constitute acts of reliance by a developer to vest rights. (Cruz)

CS/HB 1051 (Tuck) and SB 1082 (Collins) prohibit a governmental entity from adopting or enforcing legislation inhibiting the construction or installation of housing for agricultural workers on agricultural land. The bills establish criteria for the construction and installation of these housing units, including adherence to federal, state and local building standards, minimum distance requirements between units, limitations on the square footage of climate-controlled facilities and specified setbacks from property boundaries. The bills prohibit local governments from adopting land use regulations that are more restrictive than certain state and federal regulations, while requiring property owners to maintain records of all approved permits for at least three years. The bills also outline conditions under which housing sites may cease to be used or be required to be removed, including non-use for over a year or loss of agricultural land classification. The bills are set to take effect on July 1, 2024. (Cruz)

CS/HB 479 (Robinson, W.) and SB 688 (Martin) revise and provide additional guidance concerning the use of mobility plans and the collection of mobility fees. The bills provide definitions for “mobility fee” and “mobility plan” to be used within the Community Planning Act. The bills prohibit local governments from charging for transportation impacts if they are not the local government that is issuing a building permit, require that local governments collect for extra jurisdictional impacts if they are issuing building permits and prohibit local governments from assessing multiple charges for the same transportation impact. Concerning impact fees, the bills provide that local governments adopting and collecting impact fees by ordinance or resolution must use localized data available within the previous 12 months of adoption for the local government’s calculation of impact fees. (Cruz)