Florida Statutes 479.24 – Compensation for signs; eminent domain; exceptions
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(1) Just compensation shall be paid by the department upon the department’s acquisition of a lawful conforming or nonconforming sign along any portion of the interstate or federal-aid primary highway system. This section does not apply to a sign that is illegal at the time of its removal. A sign loses its nonconforming status and becomes illegal at such time as it fails to be permitted or maintained in accordance with all applicable laws, rules, ordinances, or regulations other than the provision that makes it nonconforming. A legal nonconforming sign under state law or rule does not lose its nonconforming status solely because it additionally becomes nonconforming under an ordinance or regulation of a local governmental entity passed at a later date. The department shall make every reasonable effort to negotiate the purchase of the signs to avoid litigation and congestion in the courts.
(2) The department is not required to remove any sign under this section if the federal share of the just compensation to be paid upon removal of the sign is not available to make such payment, unless an appropriation by the Legislature for such purpose is made to the department.
(3)(a) The department may use the power of eminent domain when necessary to carry out this chapter.
Terms Used In Florida Statutes 479.24
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Department: means the Department of Transportation. See Florida Statutes 479.01
- Federal-aid primary highway system: means the federal-aid primary highway system in existence on June 1, 1991, and any highway that was not a part of such system as of that date but that is, or became after June 1, 1991, a part of the National Highway System, including portions that have been accepted as part of the National Highway System but are unbuilt or unopened. See Florida Statutes 479.01
- Highway: means any road, street, or other way open or intended to be opened to the public for travel by motor vehicles. See Florida Statutes 479.01
- Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
- Nonconforming sign: means a sign which was lawfully erected but which does not comply with the land use, setback, size, spacing, and lighting provisions of state or local law, rule, regulation, or ordinance passed at a later date or a sign which was lawfully erected but which later fails to comply with state or local law, rule, regulation, or ordinance due to changed conditions. See Florida Statutes 479.01
- Remove: means to disassemble all sign materials above ground level and transport such materials from the site. See Florida Statutes 479.01
- Sign: means any combination of structure and message in the form of an outdoor sign, display, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, advertising structure, advertisement, logo, symbol, or other form, whether placed individually or on a V-type, back-to-back, side-to-side, stacked, or double-faced display or automatic changeable facing, designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform, any part of the advertising message or informative contents of which is visible from any place on the main-traveled way. See Florida Statutes 479.01
(b) If eminent domain procedures are instituted, just compensation shall be made pursuant to the state’s eminent domain procedures, chapters 73 and 74.