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Board of County Commissioners Meeting Minutes - Final February 1, 2022 <br />Ms. Forst referred to Senate Bill 620 and House Bill 569, noting these were <br />local government bills that created a cause of action for established businesses <br />to recover losses from a County or municipality whose regulatory action caused <br />significant impact on their business. She reviewed the amendments to Senate <br />Bill 620 which included prevailing party language, attorney fees and costs, <br />clarified that a business must have had operated within the jurisdiction in <br />question for at least three years prior to filing damages, and clarified that <br />ordinances that were expressly authorized to comply with State and Federal law <br />were exempt from business damages. She felt this language would protect <br />some of the County's Ordinances, specifically the Biosolids Moratorium. She <br />remarked that the House fled a proposed committee substitute that matched the <br />Senate language and the County planned to work with House Representative <br />Erin Grall as the bill moved through the House. She expressed some concerns <br />on the language contained in the House version of the bill and stated the County <br />was proposing language to include in the bill that would require businesses to <br />have paid all their fees, assessments, taxes, require that all licenses were in <br />compliance before a business could file suit for damages, require that attorney <br />fee provisions were equal on both sides, and to allow an ordinance being upheld <br />in court to go into effect upon rendition of an order. <br />Ms. Forst outlined Senate Bill 280 and House Bill 403, pointing out that these <br />bills addressed attorney fees and business impact statements if a local <br />government enacts an ordinance on a matter preempted to the State. The bill <br />would require counties to develop a business impact statement prior to the <br />adoption of a proposed ordinance or suspension of an ordinance's enforcement <br />and its amendments. She stated that the County planned to work closely with <br />Representative Grall to update the House version to match the exemptions in <br />Senate Bill 620. <br />Ms. Forst concluded with an update to Senate Bill 512 and House Bill 325 on <br />Vacation Rentals, mentioning that the County was working closely with Senator <br />Danny Burgess to include language that would grandfather -in the County's <br />existing Vacation Rental Ordinance and regulations. Chairman O'Bryan <br />commended Ms. Forst for her work in Tallahassee. <br />Chairman O'Bryan referred to a guest commentary article written by House <br />Representative Randy Fine on House Bill 349 (HB 349) that would allow <br />seagrass mitigation banks. He asked for the Board's consensus to direct staff to <br />contact the County's Lobbyist Group to oppose HB 349 and to add it to the list <br />of approved legislative priorities. He also provided an update on the bill that <br />was fled to eliminate the Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) and <br />indicated the bill's sponsor amended the language in bill to change the SWCD <br />Board member requirements. <br />Indian River County Florida Page 15 <br />