(1) The several incorporated municipalities and counties shall have power and responsibility:

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

   (a)() To plan for their future development and growth.

   (b)() To adopt and amend comprehensive plans, or elements or portions thereof, to guide their future development and growth.

   (c)() To implement adopted or amended comprehensive plans by the adoption of appropriate land development regulations or elements thereof.

   (d)() To establish, support, and maintain administrative instruments and procedures to carry out the provisions and purposes of this act.

The powers and authority set out in this act may be employed by municipalities and counties individually or jointly by mutual agreement in accord with the provisions of this act and in such combinations as their common interests may dictate and require.

   (2) Each local government shall prepare a comprehensive plan of the type and in the manner set out in this part or prepare amendments to its existing comprehensive plan to conform it to the requirements of this part and in the manner set out in this part. In accordance with s. 163.3184, each local government shall submit to the state land planning agency its complete proposed comprehensive plan or its complete comprehensive plan as proposed to be amended.

   (3) When a local government has not prepared all of the required elements or has not amended its plan as required by subsection (2), the regional planning agency having responsibility for the area in which the local government lies shall prepare and adopt by rule, pursuant to chapter 120, the missing elements or adopt by rule amendments to the existing plan in accordance with this act by July 1, 1989, or within 1 year after the dates specified or provided in subsection (2) and the state land planning agency review schedule, whichever is later. The regional planning agency shall provide at least 90 days’ written notice to any local government whose plan it is required by this subsection to prepare, prior to initiating the planning process. At least 90 days before the adoption by the regional planning agency of a comprehensive plan, or element or portion thereof, pursuant to this subsection, the regional planning agency shall transmit a copy of the proposed comprehensive plan, or element or portion thereof, to the local government and the state land planning agency for written comment. The state land planning agency shall review and comment on such plan, or element or portion thereof, in accordance with s. 163.3184(6). Section 163.3184(6), (7), and (8) shall be applicable to the regional planning agency as if it were a governing body. Existing comprehensive plans shall remain in effect until they are amended pursuant to subsection (2), this subsection, s. 163.3187, or s. 163.3189.

   (4) A municipality established after the effective date of this act shall, within 1 year after incorporation, establish a local planning agency, pursuant to s. 163.3174, and prepare and adopt a comprehensive plan of the type and in the manner set out in this act within 3 years after the date of such incorporation. A county comprehensive plan shall be deemed controlling until the municipality adopts a comprehensive plan in accord with the provisions of this act. If, upon the expiration of the 3-year time limit, the municipality has not adopted a comprehensive plan, the regional planning agency shall prepare and adopt a comprehensive plan for such municipality.

   (5) Any comprehensive plan, or element or portion thereof, adopted pursuant to the provisions of this act, which but for its adoption after the deadlines established pursuant to previous versions of this act would have been valid, shall be valid.

   (6) When a regional planning agency is required to prepare or amend a comprehensive plan, or element or portion thereof, pursuant to subsections (3) and (4), the regional planning agency and the local government may agree to a method of compensating the regional planning agency for any verifiable, direct costs incurred. If an agreement is not reached within 6 months after the date the regional planning agency assumes planning responsibilities for the local government pursuant to subsections (3) and (4) or by the time the plan or element, or portion thereof, is completed, whichever is earlier, the regional planning agency shall file invoices for verifiable, direct costs involved with the governing body. Upon the failure of the local government to pay such invoices within 90 days, the regional planning agency may, upon filing proper vouchers with the Chief Financial Officer, request payment by the Chief Financial Officer from unencumbered revenue or other tax sharing funds due such local government from the state for work actually performed, and the Chief Financial Officer shall pay such vouchers; however, the amount of such payment shall not exceed 50 percent of such funds due such local government in any one year.

   (7) A local government that is being requested to pay costs may seek an administrative hearing pursuant to ss. 120.569 and 120.57 to challenge the amount of costs and to determine if the statutory prerequisites for payment have been complied with. Final agency action shall be taken by the state land planning agency. Payment shall be withheld as to disputed amounts until proceedings under this subsection have been completed.

   (8) Nothing in this act shall limit or modify the rights of any person to complete any development that has been authorized as a development of regional impact pursuant to chapter 380 or who has been issued a final local development order and development has commenced and is continuing in good faith.

   (9) The Reedy Creek Improvement District shall exercise the authority of this part as it applies to municipalities, consistent with the legislative act under which it was established, for the total area under its jurisdiction.

   (10) Nothing in this part shall supersede any provision of ss. 341.8201–341.842.

   (11) Each local government is encouraged to articulate a vision of the future physical appearance and qualities of its community as a component of its local comprehensive plan. The vision should be developed through a collaborative planning process with meaningful public participation and shall be adopted by the governing body of the jurisdiction. Neighboring communities, especially those sharing natural resources or physical or economic infrastructure, are encouraged to create collective visions for greater-than-local areas. Such collective visions shall apply in each city or county only to the extent that each local government chooses to make them applicable. The state land planning agency shall serve as a clearinghouse for creating a community vision of the future and may utilize the Growth Management Trust Fund, created by s. 186.911, to provide grants to help pay the costs of local visioning programs. When a local vision of the future has been created, a local government should review its comprehensive plan, land development regulations, and capital improvement program to ensure that these instruments will help to move the community toward its vision in a manner consistent with this act and with the state comprehensive plan. A local or regional vision must be consistent with the state vision, when adopted, and be internally consistent with the local or regional plan of which it is a component. The state land planning agency shall not adopt minimum criteria for evaluating or judging the form or content of a local or regional vision.

   (12) An initiative or referendum process in regard to any development order or in regard to any local comprehensive plan amendment or map amendment that affects five or fewer parcels of land is prohibited.

   (13) Each local government shall address in its comprehensive plan, as enumerated in this chapter, the water supply sources necessary to meet and achieve the existing and projected water use demand for the established planning period, considering the applicable plan developed pursuant to s. 373.709.

   (14)(a) If a local government grants a development order pursuant to its adopted land development regulations and the order is not the subject of a pending appeal and the timeframe for filing an appeal has expired, the development order may not be invalidated by a subsequent judicial determination that such land development regulations, or any portion thereof that is relevant to the development order, are invalid because of a deficiency in the approval standards.

   (b)() This subsection does not preclude or affect the timely institution of any other remedy available at law or equity, including a common law writ of certiorari proceeding pursuant to Rule 9.190, Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure, or an original proceeding pursuant to s. 163.3215, as applicable.

   (c)() This subsection applies retroactively to any development order granted on or after January 1, 2002.

s. 4, ch. 75-257; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 3, ch. 85-55; s.