Florida § 170.01 - Authority for providing improvements and levying and collecting special assessments against property benefited.

§ 170.01. Authority for providing improvements and levying and collecting special assessments against property benefited.

(1) Any municipality of this state may, by its governing authority: (a) Provide for the construction, reconstruction, repair, paving, repaving, hard surfacing, rehard surfacing, widening, guttering, and draining of streets, boulevards, and alleys; for grading, regrading, leveling, laying, relaying, paving, repaving, hard surfacing, and rehard surfacing of sidewalks; for constructing or reconstructing permanent pedestrian canopies over public sidewalks; and in connection with any of the foregoing, provide related lighting, landscaping, street furniture, signage, and other amenities as determined by the governing authority of the municipality; (b) Order the construction, reconstruction, repair, renovation, excavation, grading, stabilization, and upgrading of greenbelts, swales, culverts, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, outfalls, canals, primary, secondary, and tertiary drains, water bodies, marshlands, and natural areas, all or part of a comprehensive stormwater management system, including the necessary appurtenances and structures thereto and including, but not limited to, dams, weirs, and pumps; (c) Order the construction or reconstruction of water mains, water laterals, alternative water supply systems, including, but not limited to, reclaimed water, aquifer storage and recovery, and desalination systems, and other water distribution facilities, including the necessary appurtenances thereto; (d) Pay for the relocation of utilities, including the placement underground of electrical, telephone, and cable television services, pursuant to voluntary agreement with the utility, but nothing contained in this paragraph shall affect a utility’s right to locate or relocate its facilities on its own initiative at its own expense; (e) Provide for the construction or reconstruction of parks and other public recreational facilities and improvements, including appurtenances thereto; (f) Provide for the construction or reconstruction of seawalls; (g) Provide for the drainage and reclamation of wet, low, or overflowed lands; (h) Provide for offstreet parking facilities, parking garages, or similar facilities; (i) Provide for mass transportation systems; (j) Provide for improvements to permit the passage and navigation of watercraft; and (k) Provide for the payment of all or any part of the costs of any such improvements by levying and collecting special assessments on the abutting, adjoining, contiguous, or other specially benefited property. However, offstreet parking facilities, parking garages, or other similar facilities and mass transportation systems must be approved by vote of a majority of the affected property owners. Any municipality which is legally obligated for providing capital improvements for water, alternative water supplies, including, but not limited to, reclaimed water, water from aquifer storage and recovery, and desalination systems, or sewer facilities within an unincorporated area of the county may recover the costs of the capital improvements by levying and collecting special assessments for the purposes authorized in this section on the specially benefited property; however, collections of the special assessment shall not take place until the specially benefited property connects to the capital improvement. (2) Special assessments may be levied only for the purposes enumerated in this section and shall be levied only on benefited real property at a rate of assessment based on the special benefit accruing to such property from such improvements when the improvements funded by the special assessment provide a benefit which is different in type or degree from benefits provided to the community as a whole. (3) Any municipality, subject to the approval of a majority of the affected property owners, may levy and collect special assessments against property benefited for the purpose of stabilizing and improving: (a) Retail business districts, (b) Wholesale business districts, or (c) Nationally recognized historic districts, or any combination of such districts, through promotion, management, marketing, and other similar services in such districts of the municipality. This subsection does not authorize a municipality to use bond proceeds to fund ongoing operations of these districts. (4) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a municipality may not levy special assessments for the provision of fire protection services on lands classified as agricultural lands under s. 193.461 unless the land contains a residential dwelling or nonresidential farm building, with the exception of an agricultural pole barn, provided the nonresidential farm building exceeds a just value of $10,000. Such special assessments must be based solely on the special benefit accruing to that portion of the land consisting of the residential dwelling and curtilage, and qualifying nonresidential farm buildings. As used in this subsection, the term “agricultural pole barn” means a nonresidential farm building in which 70 percent or more of the perimeter walls are permanently open and allow free ingress and egress.