SB 1326 Florida Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Areas of Critical State Concern

Summary

Areas of Critical State Concern; Exempting a person entering into a construction contract with Habitat for Humanity International, Inc., or any of its affiliates from executing a payment and performance bond under certain circumstances; extending the timeframe for specific Florida Forever appropriations to be used for the purchase of lands in the Florida Keys Area of Critical State Concern; providing a limitation for additional building permit allocations, etc.

Issues: ✓ Environment

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 10, 2025 Last action Jun 16, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

S 1326 c1 → S 1326 c2 · 6 edits

MODERATE

This bill version (c2) simplifies the bill's structure by removing the affordable housing tax exemption section and reorganizing the remaining sections. It clarifies bond exemptions for Habitat for Humanity projects, extends Florida Forever funding for land acquisition in the Florida Keys, and sets specific building permit limits and distribution rules for Monroe County and surrounding cities to manage hurricane evacuation capacity.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed by removing the affordable housing property tax exemption (Section 1 of c1) and consolidating remaining provisions into three sections focused on construction bonds, Florida Forever funding, and building permit allocations.

ELIGIBILITY

The affordable housing property tax exemption for multifamily projects in areas of critical state concern was removed entirely from this version of the bill.

REQUIREMENT

The bond exemption for Habitat for Humanity projects was clarified to explicitly state that the underlying real property owned by the state or local government cannot be subject to lien rights created under chapter 713.

Building permit allocations for the Florida Keys were updated: the evacuation clearance time threshold was changed from 24.5 hours to 24 hours, and a total of 825 permits were allocated over at least 10 years with specific distribution requirements for Monroe County (539), Marathon (187), Islamorada (71), and Key West (28).

FISCAL

Florida Forever funding for land acquisition in the Florida Keys was extended from the 2017-2018 fiscal year through the 2026-2027 fiscal year, with a minimum of $5 million annually required.

DEFINITION

A new definition for 'workforce housing' was added, defining it as residential units restricted for at least 99 years to households deriving at least 70% of income from employment in Monroe County.

TIMELINE

The effective date of the act was set to July 1, 2025.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 14, 2025

Upper · Passed

Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)

upper

Apr 10, 2025

Upper · Passed

CS/CS by Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government; YEAS 11 NAYS 0

upper

Apr 7, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government, 04/10/25, 11:00 am, 412 Knott Building

upper

Mar 26, 2025

Upper · Passed

Now in Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government

upper

Mar 26, 2025

Upper · Passed

Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)

upper

Mar 20, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Environment and Natural Resources, 03/25/25, 11:00 am, 110 Senate Building

upper

Mar 10, 2025

Introduced

upper

Mar 6, 2025

Committee

Referred to Environment and Natural Resources; Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government; Rules

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors