HB 945

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to growth management; amending s.
3	163.3177, F.S.; authorizing the Florida Fish and Wildlife
4	Conservation Commission, in cooperation with other
5	specified state agencies, to provide assistance to
6	landowners and local governments in implementing
7	provisions relating to rural land stewardship areas;
8	revising criteria for establishing a rural land
9	stewardship area; revising provisions relating to
10	transferrable land use credits; revising credit
11	limitations; providing legislative findings and intent;
12	prohibiting the state land planning agency from adopting
13	certain rules; repealing certain administrative rules
14	relating to rural land stewardship areas; providing an
15	effective date.
16
17	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
18
19	Section 1.  Paragraph (d) of subsection (11) of section
20	163.3177, Florida Statutes, is amended, paragraphs (e) through
21	(h) are redesignated as paragraphs (f) through (i),
22	respectively, and a new paragraph (e) is added to that
23	subsection, to read:
24	163.3177  Required and optional elements of comprehensive
25	plan; studies and surveys.-
26	(11)
27	(d)1.  The department, in cooperation with the Department
28	of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in cooperation with the
29	Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Department of
30	Environmental Protection, water management districts, and
31	regional planning councils, may shall provide assistance to
32	landowners and local governments in the implementation of this
33	paragraph and rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code.
34	However, landowners and local governments are not required to
35	demonstrate need based on population growth or any other factor.
36	Implementation of those provisions shall include a process by
37	which one or more landowners the department may petition a
38	authorize local government governments to designate all or
39	portions of lands classified in the future land use element as
40	predominantly agricultural, rural, open, open-rural, or a
41	substantively equivalent land use, as a rural land stewardship
42	area within which planning and economic incentives are applied
43	to encourage a balancing of land uses through the implementation
44	of innovative and flexible planning and development strategies
45	and creative land use planning techniques, including those
46	contained herein and in rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida
47	Administrative Code. Assistance may include, but is not limited
48	to:
49	a.  Assistance with mapping environmental areas worthy of
50	protection and from the Department of Environmental Protection
51	and water management districts in creating the geographic
52	information systems land cover database and aerial
53	photogrammetry needed to prepare for a rural land stewardship
54	area;
55	b.  Support for local government implementation of rural
56	land stewardship concepts by providing information and technical
57	assistance to local governments as needed; and regarding
58	c.  Making available land acquisition programs that may be
59	used by the local government or landowners to leverage the
60	protection of greater acreage and maximize the effectiveness of
61	rural land stewardship areas.; and
62	c.  Expansion of the role of the Department of Community
63	Affairs as a resource agency to facilitate establishment of
64	rural land stewardship areas in smaller rural counties that do
65	not have the staff or planning budgets to create a rural land
66	stewardship area.
67	2.  The department shall encourage participation by local
68	governments of different sizes and rural characteristics in
69	establishing and implementing rural land stewardship areas. It
70	is the intent of the Legislature that rural land stewardship
71	areas be used to further the following broad principles of rural
72	sustainability: restoration and maintenance of the economic
73	value of rural land; control of urban sprawl; identification and
74	protection of ecosystems, habitats, and natural resources;
75	promotion of rural economic activity within rural areas;
76	maintenance of the viability of the state's Florida's
77	agricultural economy; and protection of private property rights
78	in the character of rural areas of the state Florida. Rural land
79	stewardship areas may be multicounty in order to encourage
80	coordinated regional stewardship planning.
81	3.  A local government, in conjunction with a regional
82	planning council, a stakeholder organization of private land
83	owners, or another local government, shall notify the department
84	in writing of its intent to designate a rural land stewardship
85	area. The written notification shall describe the basis for the
86	designation, including the extent to which the rural land
87	stewardship area enhances rural land values, controls urban
88	sprawl, provides necessary open space for agriculture and
89	protection of the natural environment, promotes rural economic
90	activity, and maintains rural character and the economic
91	viability of agriculture.
92	3.4.  A rural land stewardship area must be at least shall
93	be not less than 10,000 acres, and shall be located outside of
94	municipalities and established urban service areas or planned
95	future urban service areas growth boundaries, and shall be
96	designated by plan amendment or by more than one plan amendment
97	if the rural land stewardship area encompasses more than one
98	county. The plan amendment or amendments designating a rural
99	land stewardship area are shall be subject to review by the
100	Department of Community Affairs pursuant to s. 163.3184 and
101	shall provide for the following:
102	a.  Criteria for the designation of receiving areas within
103	rural land stewardship areas in which innovative planning and
104	development strategies may be applied. Criteria shall at a
105	minimum provide for the following: adequacy of suitable land to
106	accommodate development so as to avoid conflict with
107	environmentally sensitive areas, resources, and habitats;
108	compatibility between and transition from higher density uses to
109	lower intensity rural uses; and the establishment of receiving
110	area service boundaries which provide for a transition from
111	separation between receiving areas and other land uses within
112	the rural land stewardship area through limitations on the
113	extension of services; and connection of receiving areas with
114	the rest of the rural land stewardship area using rural design
115	and rural road corridors.
116	b.  Goals, objectives, and policies setting forth the
117	innovative planning and development strategies to be applied
118	within rural land stewardship areas pursuant to the provisions
119	of this section.
120	c.  A process for the implementation of innovative planning
121	and development strategies within the rural land stewardship
122	area, including those described in this subsection and rule 9J-
123	5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code, which provide for a
124	functional mix of land uses, including adequate available
125	workforce housing, including low, very-low and moderate income
126	housing for the development anticipated in the receiving area
127	and which are applied through the adoption by the local
128	government of zoning and land development regulations applicable
129	to the rural land stewardship area.
130	d.  A process which encourages visioning pursuant to s.
131	163.3167(11) to ensure that innovative planning and development
132	strategies comply with the provisions of this section.
133	e.  The control of sprawl through the use of applicable
134	innovative strategies and creative land use techniques
135	consistent with the provisions of this subsection and rule 9J-
136	5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code.
137	4.5.  A receiving area may only shall be designated
138	pursuant to procedures established in the local government's by
139	the adoption of a land development regulations regulation. Prior
140	to the designation of a receiving area, the local government
141	shall provide the Department of Community Affairs a period of 30
142	days in which to review a proposed receiving area for
143	consistency with the rural land stewardship area plan amendment
144	and to provide comments to the local government. At the time of
145	designation of a stewardship receiving area, a listed species
146	survey will be performed. If listed species occur on the
147	receiving area site, the applicant developer shall coordinate
148	with each appropriate local, state, or federal agency to
149	determine whether if adequate provisions have been made to
150	protect those species in accordance with applicable regulations.
151	In determining the adequacy of provisions for the protection of
152	listed species and their habitats, the rural land stewardship
153	area shall be considered as a whole, and the potential impacts
154	and protective measures taken within to areas to be developed as
155	receiving areas shall be considered in conjunction together with
156	the substantial environmental benefits derived from lands set
157	aside and protective measures taken outside of the designation
158	of receiving areas protected as sending areas in fulfilling this
159	criteria.
160	5.6.  Upon the adoption of a plan amendment creating a
161	rural land stewardship area, the local government shall, by
162	ordinance, establish a rural land stewardship overlay zoning
163	district, which shall provide the methodology for the creation,
164	conveyance, and use of transferable rural land use credits,
165	hereinafter otherwise referred to as stewardship credits, the
166	application of which does shall not constitute a right to
167	develop land or, nor increase density of land, except as
168	provided by this section. The total amount of stewardship
169	transferable rural land use credits within the rural land
170	stewardship area must enable the realization of the long-term
171	vision and goals for the 25-year or greater projected population
172	of the rural land stewardship area, which may take into
173	consideration the anticipated effect of the proposed receiving
174	areas. The estimated amount of receiving area shall be projected
175	based on available data, and the development potential
176	represented by the stewardship credits created within the rural
177	land stewardship area must correlate that amount.
178	6.  Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits are
179	subject to the following limitations:
180	a.  Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits may
181	only exist within a rural land stewardship area.
182	b.  Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits may
183	only be created from lands designated as stewardship sending
184	areas and may only be used on lands designated as stewardship
185	receiving areas and then solely for the purpose of implementing
186	innovative planning and development strategies and creative land
187	use planning techniques adopted by the local government pursuant
188	to this section.
189	c.  Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits
190	assigned to a parcel of land within a rural land stewardship
191	area shall cease to exist if the parcel of land is removed from
192	the rural land stewardship area by plan amendment.
193	d.  Neither the creation of the rural land stewardship area
194	by plan amendment nor the adoption of the assignment of
195	transferable rural land stewardship zoning overlay district use
196	credits by the local government shall operate to displace the
197	underlying permitted uses or the density or intensity of land
198	uses assigned to a parcel of land within the rural land
199	stewardship area that existed prior to adoption of the plan
200	amendment or zoning overlay district; however, once stewardship
201	if transferable rural land use credits have been are transferred
202	from a designated sending area parcel for use within a
203	designated receiving area, the underlying density assigned to
204	the designated sending area parcel of land shall cease to exist.
205	e.  The underlying permitted uses or the density or
206	intensity on each parcel of land located within a rural land
207	stewardship area shall not be increased or decreased by the
208	local government, except as a result of the conveyance or
209	stewardship use of transferable rural land use credits, as long
210	as the parcel remains within the rural land stewardship area.
211	f.  Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits shall
212	cease to exist on a parcel of land where the underlying density
213	assigned to the parcel of land is utilized.
214	g.  An increase in the density or intensity of use on a
215	parcel of land located within a designated receiving area may
216	occur only through the assignment or use of stewardship
217	transferable rural land use credits and does shall not require a
218	plan amendment.
219	h.  A change in the density or intensity of land use on
220	parcels located within receiving areas shall be specified in a
221	development order which reflects the total number of stewardship
222	transferable rural land use credits assigned to the parcel of
223	land and the infrastructure and support services necessary to
224	provide for a functional mix of land uses corresponding to the
225	plan of development.
226	i.  Land within a rural land stewardship area may be
227	removed from the rural land stewardship area through a plan
228	amendment.
229	j.  Stewardship Transferable rural land use credits may be
230	assigned at different ratios of credits per acre according to
231	the natural resource or other beneficial use characteristics of
232	the land and according to the land use remaining following the
233	transfer of credits, with the highest number of credits per acre
234	assigned to the most environmentally valuable land or, in
235	locations where the retention of open space and agricultural
236	land is a priority, to such lands.
237	k.  The use or conveyance of stewardship transferable rural
238	land use credits must be recorded in the public records of the
239	county in which the property is located as a covenant or
240	restrictive easement running with the land in favor of the
241	county and either the Department of Environmental Protection,
242	Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, a water
243	management district, or a recognized statewide land trust.
244	7.  Owners of land within rural land stewardship sending
245	areas should be provided incentives to enter into rural land
246	stewardship agreements, pursuant to existing law and rules
247	adopted thereto, with state agencies, water management
248	districts, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and local
249	governments to achieve mutually agreed upon conservation
250	objectives. Such incentives may include, but not be limited to,
251	the following:
252	a.  Opportunity to accumulate transferable mitigation
253	credits for use or sale.
254	b.  Extended permit agreements.
255	c.  Opportunities for recreational leases and ecotourism.
256	d.  Compensation Payment for the achievement of specified
257	land management activities of public benefit, including, but not
258	limited to, facility and corridor siting, the leasing of
259	property for recreational purposes, water conservation and
260	storage, water reuse, wastewater recycling, water supply and
261	water resource development, nutrient removal, environmental
262	restoration and mitigation, public recreation, listed species
263	protection and recovery, wildlife corridor management and
264	enhancement, and activities relating to the reduction of
265	greenhouse gas emissions services on publicly owned land, or
266	property under covenant or restricted easement in favor of a
267	public entity.
268	e.  Option agreements for sale to public entities or
269	private land conservation entities, in either fee or easement,
270	upon achievement of specified conservation objectives.
271	8.  The department shall report to the Legislature on an
272	annual basis on the results of implementation of rural land
273	stewardship areas authorized by the department, including
274	successes and failures in achieving the intent of the
275	Legislature as expressed in this paragraph.
276	(e)  The Legislature finds that paragraph (d) constitutes
277	an overlay of land use options that provide economic and
278	regulatory incentives for landowners outside of established and
279	planned urban service areas to conserve and manage vast areas of
280	land for the benefit of the state's citizens and natural
281	environment while maintaining and enhancing the asset value of
282	their landholdings. Therefore, it is the intent of the
283	Legislature that paragraph (d) be implemented pursuant to law.
284	The state land planning agency may not adopt rules relating to
285	paragraph (d).
286	Section 2.  Rules 9J-5.026 and 9J-11.023, Florida
287	Administrative Code, are repealed, and the Department of State
288	is directed to remove these rules from the Florida
289	Administrative Code.
290	Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2011.

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