Florida Senate - 2020                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 7054
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì274560#Î274560                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  02/25/2020           .                                
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       Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and
       Economic Development (Lee) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Between lines 332 and 333
    4  insert:
    5         Section 9. Subsection (1) of section 327.59, Florida
    6  Statutes, is amended, and subsection (5) is added to that
    7  section, to read:
    8         327.59 Marina evacuations.—
    9         (1) Except as provided in this section After June 1, 1994,
   10  marinas may not adopt, maintain, or enforce policies pertaining
   11  to evacuation of vessels which require vessels to be removed
   12  from marinas following the issuance of a hurricane watch or
   13  warning, in order to ensure that protecting the lives and safety
   14  of vessel owners is placed before interests of protecting
   15  property.
   16         (5) Upon the issuance of a hurricane watch affecting the
   17  waters of marinas located in a deepwater seaport, vessels under
   18  500 gross tons may not remain in the waters of such marinas that
   19  have been deemed not suitable for refuge during a hurricane.
   20  Vessel owners shall promptly remove their vessels from the
   21  waterways upon issuance of an evacuation order by the deepwater
   22  seaport. If the United States Coast Guard captain of the port
   23  sets the port condition to “Yankee” and a vessel owner has
   24  failed to remove a vessel from the waterway, the marina owner,
   25  operator, employee, or agent, regardless of any existing
   26  contractual provisions between the marina owner and the vessel
   27  owner, shall remove the vessel, or cause the vessel to be
   28  removed, if reasonable, from its slip and may charge the vessel
   29  owner a reasonable fee for any such services rendered. A marina
   30  owner, operator, employee, or agent may not be held liable for
   31  any damage incurred to a vessel from a hurricane and is held
   32  harmless as a result of such actions to remove the vessel from
   33  the waterways. Nothing in this section may be construed to
   34  provide immunity to a marina owner, operator, employee, or agent
   35  for any damage caused by intentional acts or negligence when
   36  removing a vessel pursuant to this section. After the hurricane
   37  watch has been issued, the owner or operator of any vessel that
   38  has not been removed from the waterway of the marina, pursuant
   39  to an order from the deepwater seaport, may be subject to a
   40  fine, which must be imposed and collected by the deepwater
   41  seaport that issued the evacuation order if assessed, in an
   42  amount not exceeding three times the cost associated with
   43  removing the vessel from the waterway.
   44  
   45  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   46  And the title is amended as follows:
   47         Delete line 26
   48  and insert:
   49         Transportation Trust Fund; amending s. 327.59, F.S.;
   50         prohibiting vessels under a specified weight from
   51         remaining in certain marinas that have been deemed
   52         unsuitable for refuge during a hurricane after the
   53         issuance of a hurricane watch; requiring a marina
   54         owner, operator, employee, or agent to remove
   55         specified vessels under certain circumstances;
   56         providing that such owner, operator, employee, or
   57         agent may charge the vessel owner a reasonable fee for
   58         such removal and may not be held liable for any
   59         damages as a result of such removal; providing
   60         construction; providing that the owners or operators
   61         of certain vessels may be subject to a fine that the
   62         deepwater seaport issuing an evacuation order is
   63         required to impose and collect; amending s. 333.03,
   64         F.S.;