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March 28, 2025 | Legislative Reporter This past week was the fourth week of the 2025 Legislative Session, scheduled to end on May 2. The Bill Tracking Report, as of March 28, can be viewed here. Please review it to see the filed bills that APA Florida is tracking and their status. Note that if you click on the bill number, you will be linked to more information about the bill. If you would like any bills added to this report or would like more information about a specific bill, please contact Stefanie Svisco at ssvisco@floridaplanning.org. The following bills of interest had action this week. Note these summaries are based on a review of the bill language and legislative staff analysis. You are encouraged to read the actual bill language of bills that interest you. Please note that not all bills are covered in all legislative reports. The reports focus on bills of particular interest that have had action over the previous week. You can use the Bill Tracking Report to see the status of other bills.
GROWTH MANAGEMENT Annexing State-owned Lands: CS/CS/SB 384 (Sen. Burton) was reported favorably by the Senate Rules Committee, its third and final committee of reference, on March 26 and placed on the Senate Calendar on Second Reading. The bill amends s.171.0413 to provide that, upon advertising for the first public hearing on adopting an ordinance proposing to annex state-owned lands, a municipality must notify by writing or e-mail each member of the legislative delegation of the county in which the land is located. A similar bill, CS/HB 275 (Rep. Albert), is in the House State Affairs Committee, its second and final committee of reference. Areas of Critical State Concern: CS/SB 1326 (Sen. Rodriguez) was reported favorably, reflecting amendments, by the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on March 25 and moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government, its second of three committees of reference. The bill amends s.196.1978 to revise one of the three conditions that must be met before property in a multifamily project is considered property used for a charitable purpose and therefore eligible to receive an ad valorem tax exemption. Current law requires the property to be either a newly constructed multifamily project with a certain number of units or within a newly constructed multifamily project in an area of critical state concern, which contains more than ten units dedicated to housing natural persons or families meeting certain income limitations. The bill removes the requirement that the property within an area of critical state concern must be within a newly constructed multifamily project and lowers the number of units required from “more than ten” to “one or more.” The bill amends s.255.05 to exempt, at the discretion of the official or board who owns the subject underlying property in fee simple, a person entering into a construction contract providing for services or material from being required to execute a payment and performance bond if certain conditions are met. The underlying real property owned by the state or any county, city, or March 28, 2025 | Legislative Reporter
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