CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
CHAMBER ACTION
Senate House
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5 ORIGINAL STAMP BELOW
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11 Representative(s) Merchant offered the following:
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13 Amendment (with title amendment)
14 Remove from the bill: Everything after the enacting clause
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16 and insert in lieu thereof:
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
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HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
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.
9 (b) It is in the public interest that titles derived
10 from state deeds or grants that purported to convey
11 nonsovereignty lands, but that may have included sovereignty
12 submerged lands within the boundaries described in the deed or
13 grant, be ratified, confirmed, and validated to the extent
14 that the lands purportedly conveyed are located above the
15 ordinary high-water mark, as set forth in this section.
16 (c) It is in the public interest that the state's
17 title to sovereignty submerged lands under navigable waters,
18 which have not been alienated, and the public's rights to use
19 the navigable waters and sovereignty submerged lands
20 thereunder, be reaffirmed to the extent that such waters and
21 lands are located below the ordinary high-water mark as set
22 forth in this section.
23 (2) This section pertains to any title to real
24 property which is derived from a properly recorded deed or
25 grant made before this act takes effect by the Board of
26 Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund or by any
27 other state agency or official; which conveyed swamp or
28 overflowed lands, internal improvement lands, or other
29 nonsovereignty lands; and which contains a legal description
30 that encompasses sovereignty submerged lands.
31 (3) This section shall be construed to ratify,
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hbd0001 09:31 am 01807-0083-314191
HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
1 confirm, and validate private waterfront landowners' title to
2 swamp and overflowed lands, internal improvement lands, and
3 any other nonsovereignty lands down to the ordinary high-water
4 mark of navigable waters. The present holders of the deeds or
5 grants to which this section applies shall retain all riparian
6 rights held by private waterfront landowners.
7 (4) This section reaffirms the state's title to
8 sovereignty submerged lands under navigable waters up to the
9 ordinary high-water boundary pursuant to Section 11 of Article
10 X of the State Constitution. This act in no way alters the
11 public's rights to use navigable waters and sovereignty
12 submerged lands for common law public trust purposes up to the
13 ordinary high-water mark as defined in this section, nor does
14 this act affect the ownership by the state of sovereignty
15 submerged lands lying below that mark.
16 (5) The ordinary high-water mark of nontidal waters is
17 the ordinary or normal reach of water during the high water
18 season. It is not the highest point to which the water rises
19 in time of freshets, but is the line that the water impresses
20 upon the soil by covering it for periods sufficient to deprive
21 it of vegetation and to destroy its value for agriculture. It
22 is an ambulatory line, shifting in response to long-term
23 changes. The ordinary high-water mark is to be determined by
24 examining the bed and banks to ascertain where the presence
25 and action of the water are so common and usual, and so long
26 continued in all ordinary years, as to mark upon the soil of
27 the bed a character distinct from that of the banks, in
28 respect to vegetation and the nature of the soil itself. It is
29 coordinate with the limit of the bed the water occupies
30 sufficiently long and continuously to wrest it from vegetation
31 and destroy its value for agricultural purposes. Where the
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HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
1 banks are low and flat and the water does not impress on the
2 soil any well-defined line of demarcation between the bed and
3 the banks, the effect of the water upon vegetation shall be
4 the principal test in determining the location of the line as
5 the boundary between the property of the riparian owner and
6 that of the public. In such an instance, the ordinary
7 high-water mark is the point up to which the presence and
8 action of the water is so continuous as to destroy the value
9 of the land for agricultural purposes by preventing the growth
10 of vegetation constituting what may be termed an ordinary
11 agricultural crop. Marks upon the ground or upon local objects
12 which are more or less permanent may be considered in
13 connection with competent testimony and other evidence in
14 determining the ordinary high-water mark.
15 (6) It is not the intent of the Legislature to
16 supersede any specific grant of submerged lands granted to a
17 governmental entity by special act.
18 Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a
19 law.
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23 And the title is amended as follows:
24 Remove from the title of the bill: the entire title
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26 and insert in lieu thereof:
27 A bill to be entitled
28 An act relating to the Florida Land Title
29 Protection Act; creating s. 253.90, F.S.;
30 providing legislative intent; validating
31 certain land titles derived from state
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hbd0001 09:31 am 01807-0083-314191
HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
1 conveyances; reaffirming the public's ownership
2 and right to use sovereignty submerged lands;
3 defining ordinary high-water; defining ordinary
4 high-water mark; providing a process for
5 approval of sovereignty claims; providing an
6 effective date.
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File original & 9 copies 04/27/00
hbd0001 09:31 am 01807-0083-314191