HB 1339

CS

CHAMBER ACTION

1	The Local Government Council recommends the following:
2
3	Council/Committee Substitute
4	Remove the entire bill and insert:
5	A bill to be entitled
6	An act relating to Palm Beach County; creating the Town of
7	Loxahatchee Groves; providing a charter; establishing the
8	Town of Loxahatchee Groves; providing legislative intent;
9	providing a council-manager form of government; providing
10	municipal boundaries and municipal powers; providing for
11	election of a town council; providing for membership,
12	qualifications, terms, powers, and duties of its members,
13	including the mayor; providing for a vice mayor; providing
14	general powers and duties; providing circumstances
15	resulting in vacancy in office; providing grounds for
16	forfeiture and suspension; providing for filling of
17	vacancies; providing for compensation and expenses;
18	providing for appointment of charter officers, including a
19	town manager and town attorney; providing for removal,
20	compensation, and filling of vacancies; providing
21	qualifications, powers, and duties; providing for
22	meetings; providing for adoption, distribution, and
23	recording of technical codes; providing for keeping of
24	records; providing a limitation upon employment of council
25	members; prohibiting certain interference with town
26	employees which shall constitute malfeasance in office;
27	establishing the fiscal year; providing for adoption of
28	annual budget and appropriation; providing amendments for
29	supplemental, reduction, and transfer of appropriations;
30	providing for limitations; providing for referendum
31	requirements for revenue bonds and other multi-year
32	contracts; providing for financial audit; providing for
33	nonpartisan elections and for matters relative thereto;
34	providing for recall; providing for initiative and
35	referenda; providing for future amendments of the charter;
36	providing for standards of conduct in office; providing
37	for severability; providing for a personnel system;
38	providing for charitable contributions; providing for land
39	use changes; providing the town a transitional schedule
40	and procedures for first election; providing for first-
41	year expenses; providing for adoption of transitional
42	ordinances, resolutions, comprehensive plan, and local
43	development regulations; providing for accelerated
44	entitlement to state-shared revenues; providing for gas
45	tax revenue; providing for continuation of the Palm Beach
46	County Fire Rescue Municipal Service Taxing Unit;
47	providing for law enforcement; providing for continuation
48	of the Palm Beach County Library District; providing for
49	dissolution of the Palm Beach County Municipal Service
50	Taxing Unit B and dissolution of the Palm Beach County
51	Municipal Service Taxing Unit F; providing for
52	continuation of the Loxahatchee Groves Water Control
53	District; providing for continuation of Loxahatchee Groves
54	Park; repealing section 6 of section 2 of chapter 99-425,
55	Law of Florida; providing for waivers; requiring a
56	referendum; providing effective dates.
57
58	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
59
60	Section 1.  Corporate existence; form of government;
61	boundary and powers.--
62	(1)  Corporate existence.--
63	(a)  Pursuant to the referendum held on November 8, 2005,
64	there is hereby created, pursuant to the Florida Constitution,
65	effective December 31, 2005, in Palm Beach County, a new
66	municipality to be known as the Town of Loxahatchee Groves, (the
67	"town"), a rural community.
68	(b)  The Loxahatchee Groves area in Palm Beach County
69	includes a compact and contiguous rural community of
70	approximately 3,120 persons, who are experiencing certain
71	impacts, such as the destruction of rural habitats and the
72	threat to equestrian, farming, and nursery businesses, resulting
73	from urbanization in the surrounding areas. The residents within
74	the town would like to control the effects of those impacts
75	through the incorporation of the town, and continued existence
76	as an historic, rural community with the benefits of self-
77	determination.
78	(c)  It is in the best interests of the public health,
79	safety, and welfare of the residents of the Loxahatchee Groves
80	area to form a separate municipality for the Loxahatchee Groves
81	area with all the powers and authority necessary to provide
82	adequate and efficient municipal services to its residents.
83	(d)  It is intended that this charter and the incorporation
84	of the Loxahatchee Groves area will serve to preserve and
85	protect the distinctive rural characteristics of the community
86	and to acknowledge its close ties to the agriculture and
87	equestrian industries within the boundaries of the Town of
88	Loxahatchee Groves.
89	(e)  It is the intent of this charter and the incorporation
90	of the Loxahatchee Groves community to secure the benefits of
91	self-determination and affirm the values of representative
92	democracy, citizen participation, strong community leadership,
93	professional management, and regional cooperation.
94	(f)  The council shall exempt agricultural activities
95	conducted on farm land from any ordinances that interfere with
96	reasonable agricultural activities conducted on farm land as
97	defined in section 823.14, Florida Statutes, the Florida Right
98	to Farm Act, as may be amended from time to time.
99	(g)  The town shall not annex that area now known as
100	Callery-Judge Groves, generally described as that area of land
101	bounded on the north by M canal, on the south by the northern
102	border of the town, on the east by 140th , and on the west by M
103	canal.
104	(2)  Form of government.--The town shall have a council-
105	council-manager form of government.
106	(3)  Corporate boundary.--The corporate boundaries of the
107	Town of Loxahatchee Groves, hereinafter referred to as "the
108	town," shall be as described as follows:
109
110	That portion of Loxahatchee Sub-Drainage District,
111	Township 43 South, Range 41 East and Range 40 East,
112	Palm Beach County, Florida, being more particularly
113	described as follows:
114	Beginning at the Northwest corner of Section Eighteen
115	(18) in Township Forty-three (43) South, Range Forty-
116	one (41) East, Palm Beach County, Florida, and run
117	thence along the North line of Section Eighteen (18)
118	and Seventeen (17) of said Township to the Northeast
119	corner of Section Seventeen (17) in said Township and
120	Range; thence run South along the Eastern boundary of
121	Section Seventeen (17) to the Southeast corner of said
122	Section;
123	Thence run East along the Northern boundary of Section
124	Twenty-one (21) and of Section Twenty-two (22) to the
125	Northeast corner of the Northwest quarter of the said
126	Section Twenty-two (22); Thence run South along the
127	East line of the Northwest quarter of said Section
128	Twenty-two (22) to the Southeast corner of said
129	Northwest quarter of said Section; Thence run West
130	along the South line of the Southeast quarter of
131	Northwest quarter of said Section Twenty-two (22) to
132	the Southwest corner of said Southeast quarter of
133	Northwest quarter of said Section; Thence run South
134	along the East line of the West half of the Southwest
135	quarter of Section Twenty-two (22) and of the West
136	half of West half of Section Twenty-seven (27) and of
137	the West half of West half of Section Thirty-four (34)
138	to the North Right of Way line of State Road 80, in
139	Section Thirty-four (34); Thence West along the
140	Northern edge of the North Right of Way line of State
141	Road 80, across the West half of West half of Section
142	Thirty-four (34) and across Section Thirty-three (33),
143	Thirty-two (32), and Thirty-one (31) in said Township
144	to the point where the range line dividing ranges
145	Forty (40) and Forty-one (41) East intersects said
146	North Right of Way line of State Road 80;
147	Thence North along the West line of Sections Thirty-
148	one (31), Thirty (30), Nineteen (19) and Eighteen (18)
149	to the Point of Beginning, embracing approximately Six
150	Thousand Nine Hundred Thirty five and 56/100
151	(6,935.56) acres.
152	Said lands lying within the above described boundary
153	lines are described more particularly as follow, to
154	wit:
155	All of Section Seventeen (17), Eighteen (18), Nineteen
156	(19), Twenty (20), and Twenty-one (21) and the
157	Northwest quarter and West half of Southwest quarter
158	of Section Twenty-two (22); and West half of West half
159	of Section Twenty-seven (27); and all Section Twenty-
160	eight (28), Twenty-nine (29) and Thirty (30) and all
161	of Section Thirty-one (31) North of North Right of Way
162	line of State Road 80; and all of Section Thirty-three
163	(32) North of North Right of Way line of State Road
164	80; and all of Section Thirty-three (33) North of
165	North Right of Way line of State Road 80; and all of
166	the West half of West half of Section Thirty-four (34)
167	North of North Right of Way line of State Road 80; all
168	in Township Forty-three (43) South Range Forty-one
169	(41) East, all of said lands being situate in Palm
170	Beach County, State of Florida, according to the
171	United States official surveys of said lands.
172	TOGETHER WITH
173	The South 1/2 of Sections 7 and 8, T43S, R41E.
174	The South 1/2 of the East 1/4 of Section 12, The East
175	1/4 of Sections 13, 24, 25, T43S, R40E, and that part
176	of the East 1/4 of Section 36, T43S, R40E, lying North
177	of the North Right of Way of S.R. 80, all in Palm
178	Beach County, Florida, containing 1320 acres, more or
179	less.
180	LESS AND EXCEPT The All or Nothing Legislation Parcel
181	as described in Senate Bill No. 2616, Laws of Florida,
182	Chapter 99-425, formerly known as The Palms West
183	Hospital property
184	A parcel bounded by Southern Boulevard (S.R. 80) on
185	the South, the Southern boundary of the drainage/road
186	Right of Way known as collecting canal on the North,
187	Folsom/Crestwood of the East, and the Western boundary
188	of The All or Nothing Legislation Parcel as described
189	in Senate Bill No. 2616, Laws of Florida, Chapter 99-
190	425 on the west, said parcel being more particularly
191	described as follows:
192	A parcel of land located in the County of Palm Beach,
193	State of Florida, to wit:
194	The point of beginning being the intersection of the
195	Easterly line of Lot 4, Block K, Loxahatchee District,
196	according to the plat thereof on file in the Office of
197	the Clerk of the Circuit Court recorded in Plat Book
198	7, Page 81, of the Public Records of Palm Beach
199	County, Florida, and the Southerly boundary of the
200	"Collecting Canal" as shown on the Replat of
201	Loxahatchee Groves Subdivision according to the Plat
202	thereof, recorded in Plat Book 12, Page 29, of the
203	Public Records of Palm Beach County, Florida; Thence
204	Easterly along said Southerly boundary of the
205	"Collecting Canal" to the Easterly boundary of said
206	Replat of Loxahatchee Groves; Thence South along said
207	Easterly boundary line of the Replat of Loxahatchee
208	Groves to the North Right of Way line of State Road
209	80; Thence Westerly along said Northerly Right of Way
210	line of State Road 80 to the Easterly line of Lot 4,
211	Block K, Loxahatchee District;
212	Thence Northerly along said Easterly line of Lot 4 to
213	the Point of Beginning, and
214	A portion of Lot 4, Block "K," Loxahatchee District
215	subdivision, according to the map or plat thereof as
216	recorded in Plat Book 7, page 81, public records, Palm
217	Beach County, Florida, being more particularly described as
218	follows:
219	Commencing at the northeast corner of said lot 4; thence,
220	south 02°16'42" west, along the east line of said lot 4, a

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