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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO --SECTIONS 180.02(2) AND 153.03(2), FLORIDA STATUTES A. The Statutes FS 180.02(2), which is part of Chapter 180 entitled "Municipal Public Works," was enacted in 1935, when populations were concentrated in municipalities, and municipalities provided most utility services. In pertinent part, the statute authorizes municipalities to "extend and execute all of its corporate powers applicable for the purposes of this chapter outside of its corporate limits ... ." Significantly, no consent is required from the Board of County Commissioners if municipal utilities are extended into the unincorporated county. This is contrary to several other statutes which require consent in utility extension situations: A county cannot extend utilities into a municipality, into an area being served by a municipality, or into an area being served by, or which can be served by, a private company, without consent of the municipality or private company (FS 153.03; FS 153.04); a municipality cannot extend utilities into another municipality, without consent of the other tn�inicipality (FS 180.02(2)); and, municipalities and private companies cannot extend utilities into areas which are being served by, or are adjacent to areas being served by, another municipality or private company without consent of the other municipality or private company (FS 180.06). In short, a municipality may extend utility services into the unincorporated county without consent of the Board of County Commissioners, but consent is required from municipalities and even private companies in almost every other utility extension situation. FS 153.03(1), enacted in 1955 and discussed briefly above, deals with water and wastewater utilities. In pertinent part, the statute provides that"no county shall furnish any of the facilities provided by this chapter to any property already being furnished like facilities by any municipality without the express consent of the council, commission or body having general legislative authority in the government of such facility." Indian River County has no problem with this statute (subject to the lack of reciprocal rights in the Board of County Commissioners, discussed above), except in the following situation: When a municipality is providing service in the unincorporated county for a limited agreed term pursuant to a franchise granted by the county, the statute should not apply to prevent the county from serving the area when the agreed term of the franchise expires. In short,when the agreed term of the franchise expires,the municipality should not be able to keep serving the area for as long as it wants based upon FS 153.03(1). B. The Problems Caused by the Statutes "City of Fellsmere Natural Gas Utility Chapter 180 Reserve Area." In June 2012, without consulting Indian River County, and acting pursuant to FS 180.02(2), the City of Fellsmere approved for final hearing an ordinance establishing the "City of Fellsmere Natural Gas Utility Chapter 180 Reserve Area" in which Fellsmere would have "exclusive" authority to regulate natural gas utilities. Fellsmere itself made up a very small part of the "exclusive" service area — only 15.2% of the geographical area and only 23.6% of the population—the rest of the area and population were located in the unincorporated county. Fellsmere makes up only 8.6% of the total geographical area of the county while the"exclusive" service area included 46.8% of the entire county. Fellsmere doesn't even have a natural gas utility. It simply declared the area to be its "exclusive" service area. Fellsmere's intent was to contract with a private company which would establish the utility and pay a franchise fee to Fellsmere. Fortunately, the situation was defused when, at the final hearing on the ordinance and 229