Senate Bill 360 Refined: The Impact of the 2007 Legislative Session on Local Government Growth Management, Part I

In 2007, three new laws were passed in Florida that affect how cities and towns can plan and use their land. These laws make changes to things like big developments, traffic, affordable housing, and school needs. One important change is that the deadlines for large projects were extended by three years because of the slow real estate market. Another change is that in big counties, hotels can now be bigger before they need special approval. If you’re a local government, here are some things you should do to follow these new laws and take advantage of new options for rules and money. Here’s a simpler summary of the text:

HB 1375 allows developers to sell affordable housing units without needing approval from a DRI review if they actively tried to sell the unit to someone with a lower income for at least six months but couldn’t find a buyer. However, a certificate of occupancy must have already been issued and the sale price cannot be more than the original price offered to a lower income buyer. Also, residential units that already benefited from other exemptions cannot take advantage of this new one.

Transportation concurrency was a problem in the past because it encouraged development in suburban areas instead of urban ones. The Florida Legislature made changes in the 1990s to address this, allowing exceptions and new rules to promote development in urban areas. In the early 2000s, people were worried that local governments in Florida weren’t doing enough to improve roads and keep up with all the new buildings. So in 2005, the government passed a law called “Pay as You Go” to make sure local governments had money to improve roads. But it turned out that the law was too strict and made it really hard for local governments to afford road improvements. The new governor and his team realized this and changed the law in 2008 to make it easier for local governments to follow. In 2005, a law was created to define “financial feasibility” for development projects. There has been a debate about how this term applies to transportation facilities. A comprehensive plan is considered financially feasible for transportation if it meets level of service standards by the end of the planning period, even if improvements are not made right away. A long-term transportation plan must also be financially feasible. A future land use map amendment can be considered financially feasible if it meets certain conditions. Developers and local governments have been dealing with transportation backlogs for over 20 years. In the past, developers had to either wait for the government to fix the transportation problem or pay for the improvements themselves. However, a new law called HB 7203 says that developers are no longer responsible for fixing existing transportation backlogs. They only have to pay for the impact of their own development on transportation. It’s not clear how this change will be enforced, but it means that developers may not have to pay for some transportation improvements anymore. A new law says that local governments have to change their rules about requiring developers to pay for road improvements. Now, developers can help pay for specific road improvements related to their development, and they can still build even if there’s not enough money for all the needed road work. HB 7203 changes the rules for transportation development in certain areas, like community redevelopment areas and urban service areas. It also exempts certain types of transportation facilities like airports from following the normal traffic rules. If a developer is building affordable housing near a job center and most of the people who live there will work there, they don’t have to follow the normal traffic rules either. HB 985 and HB 7203 are laws in Florida that encourage developers to improve transportation by offering them incentives. If a developer contributes to building or expanding state or local transportation facilities, they can get credits to use for any future transportation requirements. These laws also make it easier for large developments to meet transportation requirements. HB 985 allows FDOT to try a new project to study how different forms of transportation can work together in an area with more than one local government. It also clarifies the types of transportation facilities that make up the strategic intermodal system. It includes local public transit systems as connectors in this system. The bill also addresses how to pay for construction of transportation facilities through public-private partnerships, and directs FDOT to prioritize projects funded by the state transportation trust fund. In 2005, the government said that public schools needed to be able to handle the number of students, and this had to be done by December 2008. Before 2008, local governments had to make a few changes to their plans and rules to make this happen. The Department of Community Affairs worked with some communities to make a plan for this. The government also explained some things that these communities had trouble with. One thing they explained was how the money for the schools would work. They said that the schools just had to be able to handle the students by the end of a certain time, even if they didn’t have the money right away. And if there’s a long-term plan for the schools, the same money rule applies for the whole time. Under HB 7203, a developer can speed up the construction of necessary school facilities in the first three years of the plan if they fully mitigate the impact of their development, commit to building the facilities, and the cost is equal to or greater than their share. They can also get impact fee credits when the facilities are completed. The Florida Department of Community Affairs has issued a memo about a law related to development orders, which are permits for construction. The law allows for extensions of deadlines in these permits. It also includes rules for urban redevelopment and exemptions for certain areas from transportation concurrency requirements. The law has some technical details and requirements for employers and school facilities. You can find more information on the Florida Department of Community Affairs website. This article is about a new law related to land use and zoning. It was written by three people from a law firm in Ft. Lauderdale. One is a lawyer, one is a recent law school graduate, and one is a law school student. The article was submitted on behalf of a section of the Florida Bar.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/senate-bill-360-refined-the-impact-of-the-2007-legislative-session-on-local-government-growth-management-part-i/