FL Legislative Session 2024 HB #527

This Bill has yet to be entitled. “An act relating to land and water management; amending s. 373.421, F.S.; requiring certain buffer zones for land or water delineations established by a county or municipality to be acquired by the county or municipality through eminent domain; creating s. 403.8111, F.S.; preempting regulation of specified dredge and fill activities to the Department of Environmental Protection; providing construction; repealing s. 373.591, F.S., relating to land management review teams; providing an effective date.”

In my opinion, the amending of 373.421, F.S. will make it much more difficult for counties and municipalities to extend such buffers beyond the FDEP’s regulations. The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution mandates that if the government ‘takes’ private property, the government must provide ‘just compensation.’ Therefore, landowners who may own acreages of wetlands to which a county or municipality may have interest the landowner may be able sell their wetlands to the county or municipality seeking to own through eminent domain.