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) Dockery and Putnam 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) Legislative intent. The Legislature recognizes
22 that because the stability of land titles and the clarity of
23 real property boundaries is essential to a civil society, it
24 is in the public interest to resolve the uncertainty and
25 controversy arising from the assertion of state sovereignty
26 ownership claims and public rights to lands that were
27 purportedly conveyed by state deeds or grants as
28 nonsovereignty lands, in a manner that fairly protects the
29 interests of private landowners whose titles are derived from
30 such state deeds or grants, while preserving the public's
31 ownership of and rights to use the navigable waters and
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hep0001 08:26 am 01807-0064-360945
HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
1 sovereignty submerged lands up to the ordinary high water
2 mark. For that purpose, pursuant to Article X, Section 11 of
3 the Florida Constitution, the Legislature expressly finds and
4 declares:
5 (a) It is in the public interest that the ordinary
6 high water mark, as the boundary separating riparian lands
7 from sovereignty submerged lands under navigable nontidal
8 waters, be clearly defined, consistent with its common law
9 meaning as historically applied in Florida, and with its
10 intended purpose as an observable physical boundary that
11 landowners and members of the public can readily identify;
12 (b) It is in the public interest that titles derived
13 from state deeds or grants which purported to convey
14 nonsovereignty lands, but which may have included sovereignty
15 submerged lands within the boundaries described in the deed or
16 grant, be ratified, confirmed, and validated to the extent
17 that the lands purportedly conveyed are located above the
18 ordinary high water mark, as set forth herein.
19 (c) It is in the public interest that the state's
20 title to sovereignty submerged lands under navigable waters,
21 which have not been alienated, and the public's rights to use
22 the navigable waters and sovereignty submerged lands
23 thereunder, be reaffirmed to the extent that such waters and
24 lands are located below the ordinary high water mark, as set
25 forth herein.
26 (2) This section shall be construed to ratify,
27 confirm, and validate titles derived from state deeds or
28 grants which purported to convey nonsovereignty lands, but
29 which may have included sovereignty submerged lands within the
30 boundaries described in the deed or grant, to the extent that
31 the lands purportedly conveyed are located above the ordinary
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hep0001 08:26 am 01807-0064-360945
HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
1 high water mark, as set forth herein. The present holders of
2 the deeds or grants to which this section applies shall retain
3 all riparian rights held by waterfront landowners.
4 (3) This act in no way alters the public's rights to
5 use navigable waters and sovereignty submerged lands for
6 common law public trust purposes up to the ordinary high water
7 mark as defined in this section, nor does this act affect the
8 ownership by the state of sovereignty submerged lands lying
9 below that mark.
10 (4) The ordinary high water mark on nontidal waters is
11 the line at which the water usually stands when free from
12 disturbing causes. It is not the highest point to which the
13 water rises in time of freshets, but is the line that the
14 water impresses upon the soil by covering it for periods
15 sufficient to deprive it of vegetation and to destroy its
16 value for agriculture. It is an ambulatory line, shifting in
17 response to long term changes. The ordinary high water mark
18 is to be determined by examining the bed and banks to
19 ascertain where the presence and action of the water are so
20 common and usual, and so long continued in all ordinary years,
21 as to mark upon the soil of the bed a character distinct from
22 that of the banks, in respect to vegetation and the nature of
23 the soil itself. It is co-ordinate with the limit of the bed
24 the water occupies sufficiently long and continuously to wrest
25 it from vegetation and destroy its value for agricultural
26 purposes. In some places where the banks are low and flat and
27 the water does not impress on the soil any well-defined line
28 of demarkation between the bed and the banks, the effect of
29 the water upon vegetation must be the principal test in
30 determining the location of the ordinary high water mark as a
31 line between the riparian owner and the public. In such an
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HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
1 instance, the ordinary high water mark is the point up to
2 which the presence and action of the water is so continuous as
3 to destroy the value of the land for the agricultural purposes
4 by preventing the growth of vegetation constituting what may
5 be termed an ordinary agricultural crop. Marks upon the
6 ground or upon local objects that are more or less permanent
7 may be considered in connection with the competent testimony
8 and other evidence in determining the ordinary high water
9 mark.
10 (5) It is not the intent of the Legislature to
11 supersede any specific grant of submerged lands granted to a
12 governmental entity by special act.
13 (6) No lawsuit claiming sovereignty ownership or
14 public use rights to any lands for which a private claimant
15 holds record title from a state deed or grant shall be
16 initiated by or on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the
17 Internal Improvement Trust Fund without the prior approval of
18 a majority of the Board of Trustees of the Internal
19 Improvement Trust Fund.
20 Section 2. If any provision of this act or the
21 application thereof to any person or circumstance is held
22 invlaid, the invalidity shall not affect other provisions or
23 applications of the act which can be given effect without the
24 invalid provision or application, and to this end the
25 provisions of this act are declared severable.
26 Section 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a
27 law.
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31 And the title is amended as follows:
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HOUSE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS/HB 1807
Amendment No. (for drafter's use only)
1 On page 1, lines 2 through 7
2 remove from the title of the bill: all of said lines
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4 and insert in lieu thereof:
5 An act relating to the Florida Land Title
6 Protection Act; creating s. 253.90, F.S.;
7 providing legislative intent; validating
8 certain land titles derived from state
9 conveyances; providing for public use of
10 certain water; defining ordinary high water
11 mark; providing a process for approval of
12 sovereignty claims; providing for severability;
13 providing an effective date.
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File original & 9 copies 04/26/00
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