Florida Senate - 2018                                     SB 806
       
       
        
       By Senator Baxley
       
       
       
       
       
       12-00876-18                                            2018806__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to water management district surplus
    3         lands; amending s. 373.089, F.S.; revising the
    4         circumstances when a water management district must
    5         publish its intention to sell surplus lands; revising
    6         the process for selling certain lower valued surplus
    7         lands; defining the term “adjacent property owners”;
    8         providing an effective date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Subsections (3) and (8) of section 373.089,
   13  Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
   14         373.089 Sale or exchange of lands, or interests or rights
   15  in lands.—The governing board of the district may sell lands, or
   16  interests or rights in lands, to which the district has acquired
   17  title or to which it may hereafter acquire title in the
   18  following manner:
   19         (3) Before selling any surplus land, or interests or rights
   20  in land, the district shall publish a notice of intention to
   21  sell in a newspaper published in the county in which the land,
   22  or interests or rights in the land, is situated once each week
   23  for 3 successive weeks, three insertions being sufficient. The
   24  first publication of the required notice must occur at least 30
   25  days, but not more than 360 days, before any sale is approved by
   26  the district and must include a description of lands, or
   27  interests or rights in lands, to be offered for sale.
   28         (8)(a) If a parcel of land is no longer essential or
   29  necessary for conservation purposes and is valued at $25,000 or
   30  less as determined by a certified appraisal obtained within 360
   31  days before the effective date of a contract for the sale, as
   32  specified in subsection (1), the governing board may determine
   33  that the parcel of land is surplus and may offer to sell it to
   34  the adjacent property owners. If the governing board elects to
   35  offer for sale the parcel to adjacent property owners pursuant
   36  to this subsection, the governing board must publish the notice
   37  of intention to sell must be published as required under
   38  subsection (3), one time only, and. the governing board must
   39  shall send the notice of intention to sell the parcel to
   40  adjacent property owners by certified mail and publish the
   41  notice on its website. For the purpose of this subsection, the
   42  term “adjacent property owners” means those owners whose
   43  property abuts the parcel.
   44         (b) Fourteen days after publication of such notice, the
   45  district may sell the parcel to an adjacent property owner or,
   46  if there are two or more owners of adjacent property, accept
   47  sealed bids and sell the parcel to the highest bidder or reject
   48  all offers.
   49         (c) If the parcel is not sold to an adjacent property owner
   50  pursuant to paragraph (b), the district may sell the parcel at
   51  any time to the general public for the highest price obtainable
   52  Thirty days after publication of such notice, the district shall
   53  accept sealed bids and may sell the parcel to the highest bidder
   54  or reject all offers.
   55  
   56  If the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund
   57  declines to accept title to the lands offered under this
   58  section, the land may be disposed of by the district under the
   59  provisions of this section.
   60         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.