There are only two weeks remaining in the 2011 Legislative Session before it’s scheduled to close on May 6th. Legislative committee meetings are winding down. As described below, both the House and Senate are finalizing growth management bills that significantly change the planning framework in Florida. Budget negotiations have stalled over proposed allocations and this may affect the ability of the Legislature to end on time.
Budget :
Budget negotiations between the House and Senate leadership stalled this week. The Senate presented the House with proposed allocations that identified the amount of money that would be spent on a variety of areas including health care, education and transportation. The House did not accept this proposal, which means that the formal budget conference cannot begin. It is hoped that the formal conferencing can begin early next week. If the session is to end on time, the budget must be finished and presented to legislators by May 3rd in order to meet the mandated 72-hour cooling off period prior to a final vote.
Growth Management:
HB 7001 (Community and Military Affairs Subcommittee) and HB 7003 (Community and Military Affairs Subcommittee), which reenact provisions of SB 360 that were found to be unconstitutional, were presented to the Governor on April 20th. The Governor must act on these two bills by April 27th.
As discussed in previous Legislative Reporters, CS/CS/SB 1122 (Senator Bennett, R- District 21) and CS/HB 7129e2 (Representative Workman, R-District 30) are both comprehensive growth management reform bills that would significantly change Florida’s planning process. (See the April 7th Legislative Reporter for a general summary of these two bills.)
On April 21st, the House passed CS/HB 7129e2. Over the course of the second and third readings, a number of substantive amendments were approved:
- a reduction in the extension of DRI phase dates and mitigation requirements from the previously proposed 7 years to 4 years
- a revision to the proposed two year permit extension provision to clarify that this new extension is only for projects that were unable to utilize the SB 1752 extension because the permit expiration date had passed
- the addition of a provision that if a local government, by December 1, 2011, places under contract funds committed under a development order, mitigation requirements cannot be extended.
- the addition of DRI exemptions for industrial, hotel/motel, and movie theaters
- increases to the substantial deviation thresholds for commercial, office, and attraction/recreational facilities
- the elimination of the voluntary sharing of infrastructure as a criterion for determining if two projects should be aggregated for the purposes of DRI review
- conforming the definition of urban service areas to the definition used in CS/CS/SB1122 which reads “"Urban service area" means built-up areas identified in the comprehensive plan where public facilities and services, including, but not limited to, central water and sewer capacity and roads, are already in place or are identified in the capital improvements element. The term includes any areas identified in the comprehensive plan as urban service areas, regardless of local government limitation.”
- a significant modification to proportionate share language
CS/CS/SB 1122 is in the Senate Budget Committee, its last committee of reference. This committee has meetings scheduled on April 25th and 26th but this bill is not on the agenda for either of those meetings as of now.
As the sector planning process is addressed in both of the above bills, it should be noted that this issue is also addressed independently in two other bills. CS/CS/SB 1904 (Senator Altman, R-District 24) is a separate sector planning bill which is also moving through the process. This bill is similar to CS/CS/SB 1122 and CS/HB1729e2 but not identical. It was moved favorably by the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee on April 14th and is now in the Senate Transportation Committee with one more committee of reference. The Senate has indicated that eventually SB 1122 will reflect the language in CS/CS/SB 1904 which has been amended to try to address concerns raised by environmental and other organizations. Amendments to the sector planning process are also included in SB 2156e2, which deals with Governmental Reorganization, and is in the returning messages to the Senate.
CS/CS/HB 991 (Representative Patronis, R-District 6) makes a number of changes to permit applications and procedures. However it also proposes several changes related to the comprehensive planning process:
- defines the construction and operation of a biofuel processing facility or a renewable energy generating facility, as defined in s. 366.91(2) (d), and the cultivation and production of bioenergy, as defined pursuant to s. 163.3177, shall be considered by a local government to be a valid industrial, agricultural, and silvicultural use permitted within those land use categories in the local comprehensive land use plan.
- prohibits a local government from requiring, as a condition of approval for a development permit, that an applicant obtain a permit or approval from any other state or federal agency.
- amends Section 373.441 to requires a county having a population of 75,000 or more or a municipality with local pollution control programs serving populations of more than 50,000 must apply for delegation of state environmental resource permitting on or before June 1, 2012.
- amends Section 380.06(24) to exempt mines and mine expansions from the DRI process.
- amends Section 380.0657 to make any inland multimodal facility, receiving or sending cargo to or from Florida ports, eligible for the expedited permitting process for economic development projects
-amends Section 163.3180 to create a limited exemption from Strategic Intermodal System adopted level-or-service standards for new or redevelopment projects that are inland multimodal facilities receiving or sending cargo for distribution.
This bill was moved favorably during the April 21st meeting of the House Economic Affairs Committee, but has two additional committees of reference.
CS/CS/SB 1512 (Senator Bennett, R- District 21) deals with a number of issues. It adds definitions of mobility plan and transit-oriented development to Chapter 163.3164, F.S. It also amends the definition of financial feasibility to include committed or planned funding sources of a local government for years 4-10 of a 10 year capital improvement schedule. The bill would require that amendments to address military base compatibility to be submitted by June 30, 2011.
The bill also changes the use of population with respect to future growth, stating that “The amount of land required to accommodate anticipated growth may not be limited solely by the projected population. At a minimum, the future land use plan must provide at least the amount of land needed for each land use category in order to accommodate anticipated growth using medium population projections for a 25-year planning period from the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) of the University of Florida and incorporating a minimum 25 percent market factor based upon the total population of the jurisdiction…” It would require that population projections be reconciled on a county basis, and that counties and the municipalities within enter into an allocation agreement by December 1, 2011.
The bill also changes the transportation backlog concept to a transportation deficiency concept which includes both existing deficiencies and deficiencies projected to occur with 10 years. It changes the formula for calculating transportation proportionate share for DRIS, making it a two step process where any road projected to be deficient without any DRI project traffic is eliminated from the calculation. It would require each local government to adopt by ordinance a methodology for assessing proportionate fair-share mitigation options by December 1, 2011.The bill also exempts transit –oriented developments from being reviewed for transportation impacts in the DRI process.
This bill was moved favorably by the Senate Transportation Committee on April 12th and is now in the Senate Budget Committee.
Impact Fees:
HB 7021 (Community and Military Affairs Subcommittee) reenacts s. 163.31801(5) F.S. which states that, in any action challenging an impact fee, the government has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the imposition or amount of the fee meets legal requirements. It prohibits a court from using a deferential standard. A similar bill, SB 410 (Senator Bennett, R- District 21) was passed by the Senate on March 30th. On April 20th, HB 7021 was laid on the table; SB 410 was substituted for it and passed with one amendment.
Agriculture:
CS/SB 858 (Senator Hays, R- District 20) and CS/HB 707 (Representative Crisafulli, R-District 32) are identical bills that prohibit a county from enforcing certain limits on activity of bona fide farm operations on agricultural land or charging for storm water management assessments and fees under certain circumstances. The bills also create the Agricultural Land Acknowledgement Act as s. 163.3163, F.S. This act’s purpose is to ensure that generally acceptable agricultural practices will not subject to interference from residential land use contiguous to sustainable agricultural lands. It basically requires that a notice acknowledging the agricultural use be signed and recorded before a permit or certificate of occupancy can be issued for a non-agricultural use. The bills also amend the definition of non-residential farm buildings which are exempt from state and local building codes and local fees, and also clarifies that farm fences are also exempt.
CS/SB 858 is on the April 25th Budget Committee agenda, its last committee of reference. CS/HB 707 was temporarily postponed by the Rulemaking and Regulation Subcommittee on April 5th.
Affordable Housing:
HB 639 (Representative Aubuchon, R- District 74) and its companion bill SB 912 (Senator Bennett, R-District 21) propose a number of changes to the statutes that govern implementation of affordable housing programs, practices and procedures administered by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. But these bills also require local government comprehensive plans to include affordable housing for seniors as part of the required housing element. HB 639 was passed by the House on March 31 and is in the Senate in messages. SB 912 is now in the Senate Budget Committee, its last committee of reference, but is not currently scheduled on the committee’s agenda for next week.
Florida Forever:
Florida Forever is not funded in the House budget but is in the Senate budget proposal. The Florida Senate, however, has proposed a different method of funding. It proposes spending authority only, not an appropriation, of up to $308.6 million, provided from the sale of state-owned lands. The lands proposed for possible surplusing include parcels of currently owned conservation lands with no natural resource value for conservation, lands turned over to the state under the Murphy Act, and non-conservation lands like buildings, parking lots and prisons. This provision in the Senate budget changes for one year the procedure by which state lands are sold, and would exempt the properties from appraisal and disposition requirements under current law.
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