Bill Text: FL S1440 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Rural Land Development
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-05-07 - Indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration [S1440 Detail]
Download: Florida-2011-S1440-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2011 SB 1440
By Senator Hays
20-01079-11 20111440__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to rural land development; amending s.
3 163.3177, F.S.; adding the Fish and Wildlife
4 Conservation Commission and removing the water
5 management districts from the list of governmental
6 entities that must cooperate in providing assistance
7 in the implementation of laws governing land use
8 planning and development and related agency rule;
9 adding a landowner as a recipient of assistance in
10 designating rural land stewardship areas; exempting a
11 landowner or local government from a requirement to
12 demonstrate need; authorizing a landowner to petition
13 a local government for certain land designations;
14 adding economic development as a planning goal;
15 removing the Department of Environmental Protection
16 and water management districts as agencies providing
17 assistance with mapping environmental areas worthy of
18 protection; requiring the provision of technical
19 assistance as needed to a local government in the
20 implementation of rural land stewardship; removing a
21 provision that expands the role of the Department of
22 Community Affairs as a resource agency; removing a
23 provision requiring the department to encourage
24 participation of certain types of local governments;
25 including the protection of private property rights
26 for rural areas as a broad principle of rural
27 sustainability; removing the notification requirement
28 by the local government to the department of intent to
29 designate a rural land stewardship area; modifying the
30 criteria for designating a rural land stewardship
31 area; removing consideration of certain criteria
32 relating to a functional mix of land uses; removing as
33 a review consideration the control of sprawl;
34 providing for the designation of a receiving area and
35 removing requirement for prior review by the
36 Department of Community Affairs for designation of a
37 receiving area; providing that the applicant rather
38 than the developer is required to coordinate listed
39 species protection; modifying the considerations that
40 are balanced in designating a receiving area;
41 providing for the establishment of a rural land
42 stewardship overlay zoning district; providing for
43 stewardship credits rather than transferable rural
44 land use credits to be created following the
45 designation of stewardship receiving areas; modifying
46 the criteria that affect underlying permitted uses,
47 density, or intensity of land uses; providing for an
48 increase in density or intensity of use; providing for
49 compensation to landowners who implement specified
50 land management activities of public benefit; removing
51 a reporting requirement; providing legislative
52 findings that the act be implemented pursuant to law
53 rather than rule; repealing certain rules of the
54 Florida Administrative Code; providing an effective
55 date.
56
57 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
58
59 Section 1. Paragraph (d) of subsection (11) of section
60 163.3177, Florida Statutes, is amended, present paragraphs (e)
61 through (h) of that subsection are redesignated as paragraphs
62 (f) through (i), respectively, and a new paragraph (e) is added
63 to that subsection, to read:
64 163.3177 Required and optional elements of comprehensive
65 plan; studies and surveys.—
66 (11)
67 (d)1. The department, in cooperation with the Department of
68 Agriculture and Consumer Services, in cooperation with the Fish
69 and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Department of
70 Environmental Protection, water management districts, and
71 regional planning councils, shall provide assistance to
72 landowners and local governments in the implementation of this
73 paragraph and rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code,
74 if a landowner and a local government are not required to
75 demonstrate need based on population growth or on any other
76 basis. Implementation of those provisions shall include a
77 process by which a landowner the department may petition a
78 authorize local government governments to designate all or
79 portions of lands classified in the future land use element as
80 predominantly agricultural, rural, open, open-rural, or a
81 substantively equivalent land use, as a rural land stewardship
82 area within which planning and economic incentives are applied
83 to encourage economic development through the implementation of
84 innovative and flexible planning and development strategies and
85 creative land use planning techniques, including those contained
86 in this section herein and in rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida
87 Administrative Code. Assistance may include, but is not limited
88 to:
89 a. Assistance with mapping environmental areas worthy of
90 protection and from the Department of Environmental Protection
91 and water management districts in creating the geographic
92 information systems land cover database and aerial
93 photogrammetry needed to prepare for a rural land stewardship
94 area;
95 b. Support for local government implementation of rural
96 land stewardship concepts by providing information and technical
97 assistance to local governments as needed; and regarding
98 c. Making available land acquisition programs that may be
99 used by the local government or landowners to leverage the
100 protection of greater acreage and maximize the effectiveness of
101 rural land stewardship areas.; and
102 c. Expansion of the role of the Department of Community
103 Affairs as a resource agency to facilitate establishment of
104 rural land stewardship areas in smaller rural counties that do
105 not have the staff or planning budgets to create a rural land
106 stewardship area.
107 2. The department shall encourage participation by local
108 governments of different sizes and rural characteristics in
109 establishing and implementing rural land stewardship areas. It
110 is the intent of the Legislature that rural land stewardship
111 areas be used to further the following broad principles of rural
112 sustainability: restoration and maintenance of the economic
113 value of rural land; control of urban sprawl; identification and
114 protection of ecosystems, habitats, and natural resources;
115 promotion of rural economic activity within rural areas;
116 maintenance of the viability of Florida’s agricultural economy;
117 and protection of private property rights in the character of
118 rural areas of Florida. Rural land stewardship areas may be
119 multicounty in order to encourage coordinated regional
120 stewardship planning.
121 3. A local government, in conjunction with a regional
122 planning council, a stakeholder organization of private land
123 owners, or another local government, shall notify the department
124 in writing of its intent to designate a rural land stewardship
125 area. The written notification shall describe the basis for the
126 designation, including the extent to which the rural land
127 stewardship area enhances rural land values, controls urban
128 sprawl, provides necessary open space for agriculture and
129 protection of the natural environment, promotes rural economic
130 activity, and maintains rural character and the economic
131 viability of agriculture.
132 3.4. A rural land stewardship area may not shall be not
133 less than 10,000 acres, and shall be located outside of
134 municipalities and established urban service areas or planned
135 future urban service areas growth boundaries, and shall be
136 designated by plan amendment, or more than one plan amendment if
137 the rural land stewardship area encompasses more than one
138 county. The plan amendment designating a rural land stewardship
139 area is shall be subject to review by the Department of
140 Community Affairs pursuant to s. 163.3184 and shall provide for
141 the following:
142 a. Criteria for the designation of receiving areas within
143 rural land stewardship areas in which innovative planning and
144 development strategies may be applied. Criteria shall at a
145 minimum provide for the following: adequacy of suitable land to
146 accommodate development so as to avoid conflict with
147 environmentally sensitive areas, resources, and habitats;
148 compatibility between and transition from higher density uses to
149 lower intensity rural uses; and the establishment of receiving
150 area service boundaries that which provide for a transition from
151 separation between receiving areas and other land uses within
152 the rural land stewardship area through limitations on the
153 extension of services; and connection of receiving areas with
154 the rest of the rural land stewardship area using rural design
155 and rural road corridors.
156 b. Goals, objectives, and policies setting forth the
157 innovative planning and development strategies to be applied
158 within rural land stewardship areas pursuant to the provisions
159 of this section.
160 c. A process for the implementation of innovative planning
161 and development strategies within the rural land stewardship
162 area, including those described in this subsection and rule 9J
163 5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code, which provide for a
164 functional mix of land uses, including adequate available
165 workforce housing, including low, very-low and moderate income
166 housing for the development anticipated in the receiving area
167 and which are applied through the adoption by the local
168 government of zoning and land development regulations applicable
169 to the rural land stewardship area.
170 d. A process that which encourages visioning pursuant to s.
171 163.3167(11) to ensure that innovative planning and development
172 strategies comply with the provisions of this section.
173 e. The control of sprawl through the use of applicable
174 innovative strategies and creative land use techniques
175 consistent with the provisions of this subsection and rule 9J
176 5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code.
177 4.5. A receiving area may shall be designated only pursuant
178 to procedures adopted in the local government’s land development
179 regulations by the adoption of a land development regulation.
180 Prior to the designation of a receiving area, the local
181 government shall provide the Department of Community Affairs a
182 period of 30 days in which to review a proposed receiving area
183 for consistency with the rural land stewardship area plan
184 amendment and to provide comments to the local government. At
185 the time of the designation of a stewardship receiving area, a
186 listed species survey shall will be performed. If listed species
187 occur on the receiving area site, the applicant developer shall
188 coordinate with each appropriate local, state, or federal agency
189 to determine if adequate provisions have been made to protect
190 those species in accordance with applicable regulations. In
191 determining the adequacy of provisions for the protection of
192 listed species and their habitats, the rural land stewardship
193 area shall be considered as a whole, and the potential impacts
194 and protective measures taken within to areas to be developed as
195 receiving areas shall be considered together with the
196 substantial environmental benefits derived from lands set aside
197 and protective measures taken outside the designated receiving
198 of areas protected as sending areas in fulfilling this criteria.
199 5.6. Upon the adoption of a plan amendment creating a rural
200 land stewardship area, the local government shall, by ordinance,
201 establish a rural land stewardship overlay zoning district that
202 provides the methodology for the creation, conveyance, and use
203 of transferable rural land use credits, otherwise referred to as
204 stewardship credits, the application of which does shall not
205 constitute a right to develop land, nor increase density of
206 land, except as provided by this section. The total amount of
207 stewardship transferable rural land use credits within the rural
208 land stewardship area must enable the realization of the long
209 term vision and goals for the 25-year or greater projected
210 population of the rural land stewardship area, which may take
211 into consideration the anticipated effect of the proposed
212 receiving areas. The estimated amount of the receiving area
213 shall be determined by using projections based on available data
214 and the development potential that is represented by the
215 stewardship credits created within the rural land stewardship
216 area.
217 6. Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits are
218 subject to the following limitations:
219 a. Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits may only
220 exist only within a rural land stewardship area.
221 b. Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits may only
222 be credited only from lands designated as stewardship sending
223 areas and may be used only on lands designated as stewardship
224 receiving areas and then solely for the purpose of implementing
225 innovative planning and development strategies and creative land
226 use planning techniques adopted by the local government pursuant
227 to this section.
228 c. Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits assigned
229 to a parcel of land within a rural land stewardship area shall
230 cease to exist if the parcel of land is removed from the rural
231 land stewardship area by plan amendment.
232 d. Neither the creation of the rural land stewardship area
233 by plan amendment nor the adoption of the rural land stewardship
234 zoning overlay district assignment of transferable rural land
235 use credits by the local government shall operate to displace
236 the underlying permitted uses, density, or intensity of land
237 uses assigned to a parcel of land within the rural land
238 stewardship area which existed before the adoption of the plan
239 amendment or zoning overlay district; however, once stewardship
240 if transferable rural land use credits are transferred from a
241 designated sending area parcel for use within a designated
242 receiving area, the underlying density assigned to the
243 designated sending area parcel of land shall cease to exist.
244 e. The underlying permitted uses, density, or intensity on
245 each parcel of land located within a rural land stewardship area
246 may shall not be increased or decreased by the local government,
247 except as a result of the conveyance or use of stewardship
248 transferable rural land use credits, as long as the parcel
249 remains within the rural land stewardship area.
250 f. Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits shall
251 cease to exist on a parcel of land where the underlying density
252 assigned to the parcel of land is utilized.
253 g. An increase in the density or intensity of use on a
254 parcel of land located within a designated receiving area may
255 occur only through the assignment or use of stewardship
256 transferable rural land use credits and does shall not require a
257 plan amendment.
258 h. A change in the density or intensity of land use on
259 parcels located within receiving areas shall be specified in a
260 development order that which reflects the total number of
261 stewardship transferable rural land use credits assigned to the
262 parcel of land and the infrastructure and support services
263 necessary to provide for a functional mix of land uses
264 corresponding to the plan of development.
265 i. Land within a rural land stewardship area may be removed
266 from the rural land stewardship area through a plan amendment.
267 j. Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits may be
268 assigned at different ratios of credits per acre according to
269 the natural resource or other beneficial use characteristics of
270 the land and according to the land use remaining following the
271 transfer of credits, with the highest number of credits per acre
272 assigned to the most environmentally valuable land or, in
273 locations where the retention of open space and agricultural
274 land is a priority, to such lands.
275 k. The use or conveyance of stewardship transferable rural
276 land use credits must be recorded in the public records of the
277 county in which the property is located as a covenant or
278 restrictive easement running with the land in favor of the
279 county and either the Department of Environmental Protection,
280 the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, a water
281 management district, or a recognized statewide land trust.
282 7. Owners of land within rural land stewardship sending
283 areas should be provided incentives to enter into rural land
284 stewardship agreements, pursuant to existing law and rules
285 adopted thereto, with state agencies, water management
286 districts, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and
287 local governments to achieve mutually agreed upon conservation
288 objectives. Such incentives may include, but are not be limited
289 to, the following:
290 a. Opportunity to accumulate transferable mitigation
291 credits for use or sale.
292 b. Extended permit agreements.
293 c. Opportunities for recreational leases and ecotourism.
294 d. Compensation for the achievement of specified land
295 management activities of public benefit, including, but not
296 limited to: facility siting and corridors, recreational leases,
297 water conservation and storage, water reuse, wastewater
298 recycling, water supply and water resource development, nutrient
299 removal, environmental restoration and mitigation, public
300 recreation, listed species protection and recovery, wildlife
301 corridor management and enhancement, and activities relating to
302 the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Payment for specified
303 land management services on publicly owned land, or property
304 under covenant or restricted easement in favor of a public
305 entity.
306 e. Option agreements for sale to public entities or private
307 land conservation entities, in either fee or easement, upon
308 achievement of specified conservation objectives.
309 8. The department shall report to the Legislature on an
310 annual basis on the results of implementation of rural land
311 stewardship areas authorized by the department, including
312 successes and failures in achieving the intent of the
313 Legislature as expressed in this paragraph.
314 (e) The Legislature finds that the provisions of paragraph
315 (d) constitute an overlay of land use options that provide
316 economic and regulatory incentives for landowners outside
317 established and planned urban service areas to conserve and
318 manage vast areas of land for the benefit of Florida’s residents
319 and the natural environment while maintaining and enhancing the
320 asset value of their landholdings. It is the intent of the
321 Legislature that the provisions of paragraph (d) be implemented
322 pursuant to law. Rulemaking authority is not authorized to
323 implement paragraph (d).
324 Section 2. Rules 9J-5.026 and 9J-11.023, Florida
325 Administrative Code, are repealed, and the Department of State
326 is directed to remove these rules from the Florida
327 Administrative Code.
328 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011.
