CS for CS for SB 494 Summary

• Requires lead land managing agencies to consider using state lands greater than 40 contiguous acres as gopher tortoise recipient sites in management plans, including feasibility assessments for economic viability and management compatibility.

• Authorizes private landowners with conservation easements or less-than-fee interests to establish gopher tortoise recipient sites or conservation banks without interfering with easement management plans.

• Directs the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to streamline gopher tortoise recipient site applications with a 45-day deadline for requesting additional information and 45-day deadline for approval or denial, and to establish an online dashboard showing permitted site capacity by October 31, 2023.

• Repeals section 376.15 relating to derelict vessels and establishes a new grant program allowing the Commission to provide funds to local governments for removal, storage, destruction, and disposal of derelict vessels and vessels declared public nuisances, funded from Marine Resources Conservation Trust Fund or Florida Coastal Protection Trust Fund.

• Makes technical amendments to boating laws including restrictions on vessel exclusion zones within 100 feet of the Florida Intracoastal Waterway marked channel, authorization for human-powered vessels in athletic team practices within the marked channel, and clarifications to vessel impairment testing procedures and public nuisance vessel definitions.