CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.





                                                  SENATE AMENDMENT

    Bill No. CS/HB 1807, 1st Eng.

    Amendment No.    

                            CHAMBER ACTION
              Senate                               House
                                   .
                                   .
 1                                 .
                                   .
 2                                 .
                                   .
 3                                 .
                                   .
 4                                                                

 5

 6

 7

 8

 9

10                                                                

11  Senator Campbell moved the following amendment:

12

13         Senate Amendment (with title amendment) 

14         Delete everything after the enacting clause

15

16  and insert:

17         Section 1.  Section 253.90, Florida Statutes, is

18  created to read:

19         253.90  Ordinary high-water mark determination and

20  confirmation of certain deeds or grants; legislative intent.--

21         (1)  The Legislature recognizes that because the

22  stability of land titles and the clarity of real property

23  boundaries is essential to a civil society, it is in the

24  public interest to resolve the uncertainty and controversy

25  arising from the assertion of state sovereignty ownership

26  claims and public rights to lands that were purportedly

27  conveyed by state deeds or grants as nonsovereignty lands, in

28  a manner that fairly protects the interests of private

29  landowners whose titles are derived from such state deeds or

30  grants while preserving the public's ownership of and rights

31  to use the navigable waters and sovereignty submerged lands up

                                  1
    6:21 PM   05/02/00                              h1807c1c-33c2b




                                                  SENATE AMENDMENT

    Bill No. CS/HB 1807, 1st Eng.

    Amendment No.    





 1  to the ordinary high-water mark.  For that purpose, pursuant

 2  to Article X, Section 11 of the Florida Constitution, the

 3  Legislature expressly finds and declares:

 4         (a)  It is in the public interest that the ordinary

 5  high-water mark, as the boundary separating riparian lands

 6  from sovereignty submerged lands under navigable nontidal

 7  waters, be clearly defined, consistent with its common law

 8  meaning as historically applied in Florida and with its

 9  intended purpose as an observable physical boundary that

10  landowners and members of the public can readily identify.

11         (b)  It is in the public interest that titles derived

12  from state deeds or grants that purported to convey

13  nonsovereignty lands, but that may have included sovereignty

14  submerged lands within the boundaries described in the deed or

15  grant, be ratified, confirmed, and validated to the extent

16  that the lands purportedly conveyed are located above the

17  ordinary high-water mark, as set forth in this section.

18         (c)  It is in the public interest that the state's

19  title to sovereignty submerged lands under navigable waters,

20  which have not been alienated, and the public's rights to use

21  the navigable waters and sovereignty submerged lands

22  thereunder, be reaffirmed to the extent that such waters and

23  lands are located below the ordinary high-water mark as set

24  forth in this section.

25         (2)  This section pertains to any title to real

26  property which is derived from a properly recorded deed or

27  grant made before this act takes effect by the Board of

28  Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund or by any

29  other state agency or official; which conveyed swamp or

30  overflowed lands, internal improvement lands, or other

31  nonsovereignty lands; and which contains a legal description

                                  2
    6:21 PM   05/02/00                              h1807c1c-33c2b




                                                  SENATE AMENDMENT

    Bill No. CS/HB 1807, 1st Eng.

    Amendment No.    





 1  that encompasses sovereignty submerged lands.

 2         (3)  This section shall be construed to ratify,

 3  confirm, and validate private waterfront landowners' title to

 4  swamp and overflowed lands, internal improvement lands, and

 5  any other nonsovereignty lands down to the ordinary high-water

 6  mark of navigable waters.  The present holders of the deeds or

 7  grants to which this section applies shall retain all riparian

 8  rights held by private waterfront landowners.

 9         (4)  This section reaffirms the state's title to

10  sovereignty submerged lands under navigable waters up to the

11  ordinary high-water boundary pursuant to Section 11 of Article

12  X of the State Constitution. This act in no way alters the

13  public's rights to use navigable waters and sovereignty

14  submerged lands for common law public trust purposes up to the

15  ordinary high-water mark as defined in this section, nor does

16  this act affect the ownership by the state of sovereignty

17  submerged lands lying below that mark.

18         (5)  The ordinary high-water mark of nontidal waters is

19  not the highest point to which the water rises in time of

20  freshets, but is the line that the water impresses upon the

21  soil by covering it for periods sufficient to deprive it of

22  vegetation and to destroy its value for agriculture. It is an

23  ambulatory line, shifting in response to long-term changes.

24  The ordinary high-water mark is to be determined by examining

25  the bed and banks to ascertain where the presence and action

26  of the water are so common and usual, and so long continued in

27  all ordinary years, as to mark upon the soil of the bed a

28  character distinct from that of the banks, in respect to

29  vegetation and the nature of the soil itself. It is coordinate

30  with the limit of the bed the water occupies sufficiently long

31  and continuously to wrest it from vegetation and destroy its

                                  3
    6:21 PM   05/02/00                              h1807c1c-33c2b




                                                  SENATE AMENDMENT

    Bill No. CS/HB 1807, 1st Eng.

    Amendment No.    





 1  value for agricultural purposes. Where the banks are low and

 2  flat and the water does not impress on the soil any

 3  well-defined line of demarcation between the bed and the

 4  banks, the effect of the water upon vegetation shall be the

 5  principal test in determining the location of the line as the

 6  boundary between the property of the riparian owner and that

 7  of the public. In such an instance, the ordinary high-water

 8  mark is the point up to which the presence and action of the

 9  water is so continuous as to destroy the value of the land for

10  agricultural purposes by preventing the growth of vegetation

11  constituting what may be termed an ordinary agricultural crop.

12  Marks upon the ground or upon local objects which are more or

13  less permanent may be considered in connection with competent

14  testimony and other evidence in determining the ordinary

15  high-water mark.

16         (6)  It is not the intent of the Legislature to

17  supersede any specific grant of submerged lands granted to a

18  governmental entity by special act.

19         Section 2.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a

20  law.

21

22

23  ================ T I T L E   A M E N D M E N T ===============

24  And the title is amended as follows:

25         Delete everything before the enacting clause

26

27  and insert:

28                      A bill to be entitled

29         An act relating to the Florida Land Title

30         Protection Act; creating s. 253.90, F.S.;

31         providing legislative intent; validating

                                  4
    6:21 PM   05/02/00                              h1807c1c-33c2b




                                                  SENATE AMENDMENT

    Bill No. CS/HB 1807, 1st Eng.

    Amendment No.    





 1         certain land titles derived from state

 2         conveyances; providing for public use of

 3         certain water; defining ordinary high-water

 4         mark; providing a process for approval of

 5         sovereignty claims; providing an effective

 6         date.

 7

 8

 9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

                                  5
    6:21 PM   05/02/00                              h1807c1c-33c2b