Fla. Stat. § 163.3177
(3) (a) The comprehensive plan shall contain a capital improvements element designed to consider the need for and the location of public facilities in order to encourage the efficient utilization of such facilities and set forth:
1. A component which outlines principles for construction, extension, or increase in capacity of public facilities, as well as a component which outlines principles for correcting existing public facility deficiencies, which are necessary to implement the comprehensive plan. The components shall cover at least a 5-year period.
2. Estimated public facility costs, including a delineation of when facilities will be needed, the general location of the facilities, and projected revenue sources to fund the facilities.
3. Standards to ensure the availability of public facilities and the adequacy of those facilities including acceptable levels of service.
4. Standards for the management of debt.
(6) In addition to the requirements of subsections (1)-(5), the comprehensive plan shall include the following elements:
(d) A conservation element for the conservation, use, and protection of natural resources in the area, including air, water, water recharge areas, wetlands, waterwells, estuarine marshes, soils, beaches, shores, flood plains, rivers, bays, lakes, harbors, forests, fisheries and wildlife, marine habitat, minerals, and other natural and environmental resources. Local governments shall assess their current, as well as projected, water needs and sources for at least a 10-year period, considering the appropriate regional water supply plan approved pursuant to s. 373.0361, or, in the absence of an approved regional water supply plan, the district water management plan approved pursuant to s. 373.036(2). This information shall be submitted to the appropriate agencies. The land use map or map series contained in the future land use element shall generally identify and depict the following:
1. Existing and planned waterwells and cones of influence where applicable.
2. Beaches and shores, including estuarine systems.
3. Rivers, bays, lakes, flood plains, and harbors.
4. Wetlands.
5. Minerals and soils. The land uses identified on such maps shall be consistent with applicable state law and rules.
(f) 1. A housing element consisting of standards, plans, and principles to be followed in:
a. The provision of housing for all current and anticipated future residents of the jurisdiction.
b. The elimination of substandard dwelling conditions.
c. The structural and aesthetic improvement of existing housing.
d. The provision of adequate sites for future housing, including housing for low-income, very low-income, and moderate-income families, mobile homes, and group home facilities and foster care facilities, with supporting infrastructure and public facilities.
e. Provision for relocation housing and identification of historically significant and other housing for purposes of conservation, rehabilitation, or replacement.
f. The formulation of housing implementation programs.
g. The creation or preservation of affordable housing to minimize the need for additional local services and avoid the concentration of affordable housing units only in specific areas of the jurisdiction. The goals, objectives, and policies of the housing element must be based on the data and analysis prepared on housing needs, including the affordable housing needs assessment. State and federal housing plans prepared on behalf of the local government must be consistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the housing element. Local governments are encouraged to utilize job training, job creation, and economic solutions to address a portion of their affordable housing concerns.
2. To assist local governments in housing data collection and analysis and assure uniform and consistent information regarding the state's housing needs, the state land planning agency shall conduct an affordable housing needs assessment for all local jurisdictions on a schedule that coordinates the implementation of the needs assessment with the evaluation and appraisal reports required by s. 163.3191 Each local government shall utilize the data and analysis from the needs assessment as one basis for the housing element of its local comprehensive plan. The agency shall allow a local government the option to perform its own needs assessment, if it uses the methodology established by the agency by rule.
(g) For those units of local government identified in s. 380.24, a coastal management element, appropriately related to the particular requirements of paragraphs (d) and (e) and meeting the requirements of s. 163.3178(2) and (3). The coastal management element shall set forth the policies that shall guide the local government's decisions and program implementation with respect to the following objectives:
1. Maintenance, restoration, and enhancement of the overall quality of the coastal zone environment, including, but not limited to, its amenities and aesthetic values.
2. Continued existence of viable populations of all species of wildlife and marine life.
3. The orderly and balanced utilization and preservation, consistent with sound conservation principles, of all living and nonliving coastal zone resources.
4. Avoidance of irreversible and irretrievable loss of coastal zone resources.
5. Ecological planning principles and assumptions to be used in the determination of suitability and extent of permitted development.
6. Proposed management and regulatory techniques.
7. Limitation of public expenditures that subsidize development in high-hazard coastal areas.
8. Protection of human life against the effects of natural disasters.
9. The orderly development, maintenance, and use of ports identified in s. 403.021(9) to facilitate deepwater commercial navigation and other related activities.
10. Preservation, including sensitive adaptive use of historic and archaeological resources.
(h) 1. An intergovernmental coordination element showing relationships and stating principles and guidelines to be used in the accomplishment of coordination of the adopted comprehensive plan with the plans of school boards and other units of local government providing services but not having regulatory authority over the use of land, with the comprehensive plans of adjacent municipalities, the county, adjacent counties, or the region, with the state comprehensive plan and with the applicable regional water supply plan approved pursuant to s. 373.0361, as the case may require and as such adopted plans or plans in preparation may exist. This element of the local comprehensive plan shall demonstrate consideration of the particular effects of the local plan, when adopted, upon the development of adjacent municipalities, the county, adjacent counties, or the region, or upon the state comprehensive plan, as the case may require.
a. The intergovernmental coordination element shall provide for procedures to identify and implement joint planning areas, especially for the purpose of annexation, municipal incorporation, and joint infrastructure service areas.
b. The intergovernmental coordination element shall provide for recognition of campus master plans prepared pursuant to s. 1013.30
c. The intergovernmental coordination element may provide for a voluntary dispute resolution process as established pursuant to s. 186.509 for bringing to closure in a timely manner intergovernmental disputes. A local government may develop and use an alternative local dispute resolution process for this purpose.
2. The intergovernmental coordination element shall further state principles and guidelines to be used in the accomplishment of coordination of the adopted comprehensive plan with the plans of school boards and other units of local government providing facilities and services but not having regulatory authority over the use of land. In addition, the intergovernmental coordination element shall describe joint processes for collaborative planning and decisionmaking on population projections and public school siting, the location and extension of public facilities subject to concurrency, and siting facilities with countywide significance, including locally unwanted land uses whose nature and identity are established in an agreement. Within 1 year of adopting their intergovernmental coordination elements, each county, all the municipalities within that county, the district school board, and any unit of local government service providers in that county shall establish by interlocal or other formal agreement executed by all affected entities, the joint processes described in this subparagraph consistent with their adopted intergovernmental coordination elements.
3. To foster coordination between special districts and local general-purpose governments as local general-purpose governments implement local comprehensive plans, each independent special district must submit a public facilities report to the appropriate local government as required by s. 189.415
4.a. Local governments adopting a public educational facilities element pursuant to s. 163.31776 must execute an interlocal agreement with the district school board, the county, and nonexempt municipalities, as defined by s. 163.31776(1), which includes the items listed in s. 163.31777(2). The local government shall amend the intergovernmental coordination element to provide that coordination between the local government and school board is pursuant to the agreement and shall state the obligations of the local government under the agreement.
b. Plan amendments that comply with this subparagraph are exempt from the provisions of s. 163.3187(1).
5. The state land planning agency shall establish a schedule for phased completion and transmittal of plan amendments to implement subparagraphs 1., 2., and 3. from all jurisdictions so as to accomplish their adoption by December 31, 1999. A local government may complete and transmit its plan amendments to carry out these provisions prior to the scheduled date established by the state land planning agency. The plan amendments are exempt from the provisions of s. 163.3187(1).
6. By January 1, 2004, any county having a population greater than 100,000, and the municipalities and special districts within that county, shall submit a report to the Department of Community Affairs which:
a. Identifies all existing or proposed interlocal service-delivery agreements regarding the following: education; sanitary sewer; public safety; solid waste; drainage; potable water; parks and recreation; and transportation facilities.
b. Identifies any deficits or duplication in the provision of services within its jurisdiction, whether capital or operational. Upon request, the Department of Community Affairs shall provide technical assistance to the local governments in identifying deficits or duplication.
7. Within 6 months after submission of the report, the Department of Community Affairs shall, through the appropriate regional planning council, coordinate a meeting of all local governments within the regional planning area to discuss the reports and potential strategies to remedy any identified deficiencies or duplications.
8. Each local government shall update its intergovernmental coordination element based upon the findings in the report submitted pursuant to subparagraph 6. The report may be used as supporting data and analysis for the intergovernmental coordination element.
9. By February 1, 2003, representatives of municipalities, counties, and special districts shall provide to the Legislature recommended statutory changes for annexation, including any changes that address the delivery of local government services in areas planned for annexation.
(j) For each unit of local government within an urbanized area designated for purposes of s. 339.175, a transportation element, which shall be prepared and adopted in lieu of the requirements of paragraph (b) and paragraphs (7)(a), (b), (c), and (d) and which shall address the following issues:
1. Traffic circulation, including major thoroughfares and other routes, including bicycle and pedestrian ways.
2. All alternative modes of travel, such as public transportation, pedestrian, and bicycle travel.
3. Parking facilities.
4. Aviation, rail, seaport facilities, access to those facilities, and intermodal terminals.
5. The availability of facilities and services to serve existing land uses and the compatibility between future land use and transportation elements.
6. The capability to evacuate the coastal population prior to an impending natural disaster.
7. Airports, projected airport and aviation development, and land use compatibility around airports.
8. An identification of land use densities, building intensities, and transportation management programs to promote public transportation systems in designated public transportation corridors so as to encourage population densities sufficient to support such systems.
9. May include transportation corridors, as defined in s. 334.03, intended for future transportation facilities designated pursuant to s. 337.273 If transportation corridors are designated, the local government may adopt a transportation corridor management ordinance.
(7) The comprehensive plan may include the following additional elements, or portions or phases thereof:
(9) The state land planning agency shall, by February 15, 1986, adopt by rule minimum criteria for the review and determination of compliance of the local government comprehensive plan elements required by this act. Such rules shall not be subject to rule challenges under s. 120.56(2) or to drawout proceedings under s. 120.54(3)(c)2. Such rules shall become effective only after they have been submitted to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives for review by the Legislature no later than 30 days prior to the next regular session of the Legislature. In its review the Legislature may reject, modify, or take no action relative to the rules. The agency shall conform the rules to the changes made by the Legislature, or, if no action was taken, the agency rules shall become effective. The rule shall include criteria for determining whether:
(10) The Legislature recognizes the importance and significance of chapter 9J-5, Florida Administrative Code, the Minimum Criteria for Review of Local Government Comprehensive Plans and Determination of Compliance of the Department of Community Affairs that will be used to determine compliance of local comprehensive plans. The Legislature reserved unto itself the right to review chapter 9J-5, Florida Administrative Code, and to reject, modify, or take no action relative to this rule. Therefore, pursuant to subsection (9), the Legislature hereby has reviewed chapter 9J-5, Florida Administrative Code, and expresses the following legislative intent:
(d) 1. The department, in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Department of Environmental Protection, water management districts, and regional planning councils, shall provide assistance to local governments in the implementation of this paragraph and rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code. Implementation of those provisions shall include a process by which the department may authorize local governments to designate all or portions of lands classified in the future land use element as predominantly agricultural, rural, open, open-rural, or a substantively equivalent land use, as a rural land stewardship area within which planning and economic incentives are applied to encourage the implementation of innovative and flexible planning and development strategies and creative land use planning techniques, including those contained herein and in rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code. Assistance may include, but is not limited to:
a. Assistance from the Department of Environmental Protection and water management districts in creating the geographic information systems land cover database and aerial photogrammetry needed to prepare for a rural land stewardship area;
b. Support for local government implementation of rural land stewardship concepts by providing information and assistance to local governments regarding land acquisition programs that may be used by the local government or landowners to leverage the protection of greater acreage and maximize the effectiveness of rural land stewardship areas; and
c. Expansion of the role of the Department of Community Affairs as a resource agency to facilitate establishment of rural land stewardship areas in smaller rural counties that do not have the staff or planning budgets to create a rural land stewardship area.
2. The department shall encourage participation by local governments of different sizes and rural characteristics in establishing and implementing rural land stewardship areas. It is the intent of the Legislature that rural land stewardship areas be used to further the following broad principles of rural sustainability: restoration and maintenance of the economic value of rural land; control of urban sprawl; identification and protection of ecosystems, habitats, and natural resources; promotion of rural economic activity; maintenance of the viability of Florida's agricultural economy; and protection of the character of rural areas of Florida. Rural land stewardship areas may be multicounty in order to encourage coordinated regional stewardship planning.
3. A local government, in conjunction with a regional planning council, a stakeholder organization of private land owners, or another local government, shall notify the department in writing of its intent to designate a rural land stewardship area. The written notification shall describe the basis for the designation, including the extent to which the rural land stewardship area enhances rural land values, controls urban sprawl, provides necessary open space for agriculture and protection of the natural environment, promotes rural economic activity, and maintains rural character and the economic viability of agriculture.
4. A rural land stewardship area shall be not less than 10,000 acres and shall be located outside of municipalities and established urban growth boundaries, and shall be designated by plan amendment. The plan amendment designating a rural land stewardship area shall be subject to review by the Department of Community Affairs pursuant to s. 163.3184 and shall provide for the following:
a. Criteria for the designation of receiving areas within rural land stewardship areas in which innovative planning and development strategies may be applied. Criteria shall at a minimum provide for the following: adequacy of suitable land to accommodate development so as to avoid conflict with environmentally sensitive areas, resources, and habitats; compatibility between and transition from higher density uses to lower intensity rural uses; the establishment of receiving area service boundaries which provide for a separation between receiving areas and other land uses within the rural land stewardship area through limitations on the extension of services; and connection of receiving areas with the rest of the rural land stewardship area using rural design and rural road corridors.
b. Goals, objectives, and policies setting forth the innovative planning and development strategies to be applied within rural land stewardship areas pursuant to the provisions of this section.
c. A process for the implementation of innovative planning and development strategies within the rural land stewardship area, including those described in this subsection and rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code, which provide for a functional mix of land uses and which are applied through the adoption by the local government of zoning and land development regulations applicable to the rural land stewardship area.
d. A process which encourages visioning pursuant to s. 163.3167(11) to ensure that innovative planning and development strategies comply with the provisions of this section.
e. The control of sprawl through the use of innovative strategies and creative land use techniques consistent with the provisions of this subsection and rule 9J-5.006(5)(l), Florida Administrative Code.
5. A receiving area shall be designated by the adoption of a land development regulation. Prior to the designation of a receiving area, the local government shall provide the Department of Community Affairs a period of 30 days in which to review a proposed receiving area for consistency with the rural land stewardship area plan amendment and to provide comments to the local government.
6. Upon the adoption of a plan amendment creating a rural land stewardship area, the local government shall, by ordinance, assign to the area a certain number of credits, to be known as "transferable rural land use credits," which shall not constitute a right to develop land, nor increase density of land, except as provided by this section. The total amount of transferable rural land use credits assigned to the rural land stewardship area must correspond to the 25-year or greater projected population of the rural land stewardship area. Transferable rural land use credits are subject to the following limitations:
a. Transferable rural land use credits may only exist within a rural land stewardship area.
b. Transferable rural land use credits may only be used on lands designated as receiving areas and then solely for the purpose of implementing innovative planning and development strategies and creative land use planning techniques adopted by the local government pursuant to this section.
c. Transferable rural land use credits assigned to a parcel of land within a rural land stewardship area shall cease to exist if the parcel of land is removed from the rural land stewardship area by plan amendment.
d. Neither the creation of the rural land stewardship area by plan amendment nor the assignment of transferable rural land use credits by the local government shall operate to displace the underlying density of land uses assigned to a parcel of land within the rural land stewardship area; however, if transferable rural land use credits are transferred from a parcel for use within a designated receiving area, the underlying density assigned to the parcel of land shall cease to exist.
e. The underlying density on each parcel of land located within a rural land stewardship area shall not be increased or decreased by the local government, except as a result of the conveyance or use of transferable rural land use credits, as long as the parcel remains within the rural land stewardship area.
f. Transferable rural land use credits shall cease to exist on a parcel of land where the underlying density assigned to the parcel of land is utilized.
g. An increase in the density of use on a parcel of land located within a designated receiving area may occur only through the assignment or use of transferable rural land use credits and shall not require a plan amendment.
h. A change in the density of land use on parcels located within receiving areas shall be specified in a development order which reflects the total number of transferable rural land use credits assigned to the parcel of land and the infrastructure and support services necessary to provide for a functional mix of land uses corresponding to the plan of development.
i. Land within a rural land stewardship area may be removed from the rural land stewardship area through a plan amendment.
j. Transferable rural land use credits may be assigned at different ratios of credits per acre according to the natural resource or other beneficial use characteristics of the land and according to the land use remaining following the transfer of credits, with the highest number of credits per acre assigned to the most environmentally valuable land and a lesser number of credits to be assigned to open space and agricultural land.
k. The use or conveyance of transferable rural land use credits must be recorded in the public records of the county in which the property is located as a covenant or restrictive easement running with the land in favor of the county and either the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, a water management district, or a recognized statewide land trust.
7. Owners of land within rural land stewardship areas should be provided incentives to enter into rural land stewardship agreements, pursuant to existing law and rules adopted thereto, with state agencies, water management districts, and local governments to achieve mutually agreed upon conservation objectives. Such incentives may include, but not be limited to, the following:
a. Opportunity to accumulate transferable mitigation credits.
b. Extended permit agreements.
c. Opportunities for recreational leases and ecotourism.
d. Payment for specified land management services on publicly owned land, or property under covenant or restricted easement in favor of a public entity.
e. Option agreements for sale to public entities or private land conservation entities, in either fee or easement, upon achievement of conservation objectives.
8. The department shall report to the Legislature on an annual basis on the results of implementation of rural land stewardship areas authorized by the department, including successes and failures in achieving the intent of the Legislature as expressed in this paragraph.
(12) A public school facilities element adopted to implement a school concurrency program shall meet the requirements of this subsection.
History.--s. 7, ch. 75-257; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 1, ch. 80-154; s. 6, ch. 83-308; s. 1, ch. 85-42; s. 6, ch. 85-55; s. 1, ch. 85-309; s. 7, ch. 86-191; s. 5, ch. 92-129; s. 6, ch. 93-206; s. 898, ch. 95-147; s. 3, ch. 95-257; s. 4, ch. 95-322; s. 10, ch. 95-341; s. 10, ch. 96-320; s. 24, ch. 96-410; s. 2, ch. 96-416; s. 2, ch. 98-146; s. 4, ch. 98-176; s. 4, ch. 98-258; s. 90, ch. 99-251; s. 3, ch. 99-378; s. 40, ch. 2001-201; s. 64, ch. 2001-279; s. 24, ch. 2002-1; s. 58, ch. 2002-20; s. 70, ch. 2002-295; s. 2, ch. 2002-296; s. 904, ch. 2002-387; s. 61, ch. 2003-286; s. 2, ch. 2004-230; s. 4, ch. 2004-372; s. 2, ch. 2004-381.