Florida Senate - 2009 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS for SB 2244
Barcode 856092
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Senate . House
Comm: RCS .
04/20/2009 .
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The Committee on Finance and Tax (Altman) recommended the
following:
1 Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
2
3
4 Delete lines 303 - 443
5 and insert:
6 (5) A person or organization that, on January 1, has the
7 legal title to real or personal property that is entitled by law
8 to assessment under this section must, on or before March 1 of
9 each year, file an application for assessment under this section
10 with the county property appraiser. The application must
11 identify the property for which assessment under this section is
12 claimed. The initial application for assessment for any property
13 must include a copy of the instrument by which the development
14 right is conveyed or which establishes a covenant, or the
15 conservation protection agreement or conservation management
16 plan which establishes the conservation purposes for which the
17 land is used. The Department of Revenue shall prescribe the
18 forms upon which the application is made. The failure to file an
19 application on or before March 1 of any year constitutes a
20 waiver of assessment under this section for that year. However,
21 an applicant who is qualified to receive an assessment under
22 this section, but fails to file an application by March 1, may
23 file an application for the assessment and may file, pursuant to
24 s. 194.011(3), a petition with the value adjustment board
25 requesting that the classification be granted. The petition must
26 be filed at any time during the taxable year on or before the
27 25th day following the mailing of the notice by the property
28 appraiser pursuant to s. 194.011(1). Notwithstanding s. 194.013,
29 the applicant must pay a nonrefundable fee of $15 upon filing
30 the petition. Upon reviewing the petition, if the person is
31 qualified to receive the assessment and demonstrates particular
32 extenuating circumstances judged by the property appraiser or
33 the value adjustment board to warrant granting the assessment,
34 the property appraiser or the value adjustment board may grant
35 the assessment. The owner of land that was assessed under this
36 section in the previous year and whose ownership or use has not
37 changed may reapply on a short form as provided by the
38 department. A county may, at the request of the property
39 appraiser and by a majority vote of its governing body, waive
40 the requirement that an annual application or statement be made
41 for assessment of property within the county. Such waiver may be
42 revoked by a majority vote of the governing body of the county.
43 (6) If a conservation management plan extends for a period
44 of at least 10 years following January 1 in the year the plan is
45 filed with the appropriate agency and the landowner has provided
46 a current copy of the conservation management plan to the
47 property appraiser along with a signed statement of the
48 landowner’s good-faith intention to use the land only for
49 conservation purposes before March 1 of the same year, the
50 property appraiser shall assess the land solely on the basis of
51 character of use.
52 (a) Plans required by this subsection must be filed with
53 the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission if the primary
54 conservation use is restoration or protection of native wildlife
55 habitat or native plant and animal communities.
56 (b) Plans required by this subsection must be filed with
57 the water management district within the boundaries of which the
58 land is located if the primary conservation use is restoration
59 or protection of natural water features.
60 (c) The commission and the Department of Environmental
61 Protection shall produce a guidance document establishing the
62 form and content of a conservation management plan and
63 establishing minimum standards for such plans regarding
64 restoration and protection of wildlife habitats, plant and
65 animal communities, and natural water features; control of
66 exotic species; use of prescribed fire; removal of diseased and
67 damaged vegetation; and other activities as may be necessary to
68 manage conservation land for the benefit of wildlife, plant and
69 animal communities, and water resources.
70 (d) The property appraiser may require a signed application
71 that includes a statement of the landowner’s good faith
72 intention to use the land only for conservation purposes as
73 described in this section, to keep such uses for a period of 10
74 years after the date of the application, and, upon failure to
75 carry out the conservation management plan, to pay the
76 difference between the total amount of taxes assessed and the
77 total amount that would have been due in March of the current
78 year and each of the previous 10 years if the land had not been
79 assessed solely on the basis of character or use as provided in
80 this section.
81 (7)(4) After conveying making a conveyance of the
82 development right or executing a covenant or conservation
83 protection agreement pursuant to this section, or conveying a
84 conservation easement pursuant to this section and s. 704.06,
85 the owner of the land shall not use the land in any manner not
86 consistent with the development right voluntarily conveyed, or
87 with the restrictions voluntarily imposed, or with the terms of
88 the conservation easement or conservation protection agreement,
89 or shall not change the use of the land from outdoor
90 recreational or park purposes during the term of such conveyance
91 or covenant without first obtaining a written instrument from
92 the board or charitable corporation or trust, which must
93 reconvey to the owner instrument reconveys all or part of the
94 development right to the owner or which must release releases
95 the owner from the terms of the covenant. The written instrument
96 must be recorded in the official records of the county in which
97 the property subject to the reconveyance or release is located
98 and which instrument must be promptly recorded in the same
99 manner as any other instrument affecting the title to real
100 property. Upon obtaining approval for reconveyance or release
101 from the board or the charitable organization or trust, the
102 reconveyance or release shall be made to the owner upon payment
103 of the deferred tax liability. Any payment of the deferred tax
104 liability shall be payable to the county tax collector within 90
105 days of the date of approval for reconveyance or release by the
106 board or charitable corporation or trust of the reconveyance or
107 release. The collector shall distribute the payment to each
108 governmental unit in the proportion that its millage bears to
109 the total millage levied on the parcel for the years in which
110 such conveyance or covenant was in effect.
111 (8)(5) The governing board of any public agency in this
112 state or the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust
113 Fund or a charitable corporation or trust which holds title to a
114 development right pursuant to this section may not convey that
115 development right to anyone other than the governing board of
116 another public agency in this state or a charitable corporation
117 or trust, as described in s. 704.06(4) s. 704.06(3), or the
118 record owner of the fee interest in the land to which the
119 development right attaches. The conveyance from the governing
120 board of a public agency or the Board of Trustees of the
121 Internal Improvement Trust Fund to the owner of the fee shall be
122 made only after a determination by the board that such
123 conveyance would not adversely affect the interest of the
124 public. Section 125.35 does not apply to such sales, but any
125 public agency accepting any instrument conveying a development
126 right pursuant to this section shall forthwith adopt appropriate
127 regulations and procedures governing the disposition of same.
128 These regulations and procedures must provide in part that the
129 board may not convey a development right to the owner of the fee
130 without first holding a public hearing and unless notice of the
131 proposed conveyance and the time and place at which the public
132 hearing is to be held is published once a week for at least 2
133 weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in the county in
134 which the property is located before involved prior to the
135 hearing.
136 (6) The following terms whenever used as referred to in
137 this section have the following meanings unless a different
138 meaning is clearly indicated by the context:
139 (a) “Board” is the governing board of any city, county, or
140 other public agency of the state or the Board of Trustees of the
141 Internal Improvement Trust Fund.
142 (b) “Conservation restriction” means a limitation on a
143 right to the use of land for purposes of conserving or
144 preserving land or water areas predominantly in their natural,
145 scenic, open, agricultural, or wooded condition. The limitation
146 on rights to the use of land may involve or pertain to any of
147 the activities enumerated in s. 704.06(1).
148 (c) “Conservation easement” means that property right
149 described in s. 704.06.
150 (d) “Covenant” is a covenant running with the land.
151 (e) “Deferred tax liability” means an amount equal to the
152 difference between the total amount of taxes that would have
153 been due in March in each of the previous years in which the
154 conveyance or covenant was in effect if the property had been
155 assessed under the provisions of s. 193.011 and the total amount
156 of taxes actually paid in those years when the property was
157 assessed under the provisions of this section, plus interest on
158 that difference computed as provided in s. 212.12(3).
159 (f) “Development right” is the right of the owner of the
160 fee interest in the land to change the use of the land.
161 (g) “Outdoor recreational or park purposes” includes, but
162 is not necessarily limited to, boating, golfing, camping,
163 swimming, horseback riding, and archaeological, scenic, or
164 scientific sites and applies only to land which is open to the
165 general public.
166 (h) “Present use” is the manner in which the land is
167 utilized on January 1 of the year in which the assessment is
168 made.
169 (i) “Qualified as environmentally endangered” means land
170 that has unique ecological characteristics, rare or limited
171 combinations of geological formations, or features of a rare or
172 limited nature constituting habitat suitable for fish, plants,
173 or wildlife, and which, if subject to a development moratorium
174 or one or more conservation easements or development
175 restrictions appropriate to retaining such land or water areas
176 predominantly in their natural state, would be consistent with
177 the conservation, recreation and open space, and, if applicable,
178 coastal protection elements of the comprehensive plan adopted by
179 formal action of the local governing body pursuant to s.
180 163.3161, the Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land
181 Development Regulation Act; or surface waters and wetlands, as
182 determined by the methodology ratified in s. 373.4211.
183 (9)(7)(a) The property appraiser shall report to the
184
185 ================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T ================
186 And the title is amended as follows:
187 Delete line 32
188 and insert:
189 such land based on character or use; requiring the
190 owner of the land to annually apply to the property
191 appraiser by a certain date for the assessment based
192 on character or use; authorizing the value adjustment
193 board to grant late applications for such assessments
194 if extenuating circumstances are shown; providing for
195 the