Florida Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 170.01 (2025)

Authority for providing improvements and levying and collecting special assessments against property benefited.

✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session

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170.01 Authority for providing improvements and levying and collecting special assessments against property benefited.—

(1) Any municipality of this state may, by its governing authority:

(a) Provide for the construction, reconstruction, repair, paving, repaving, hard surfacing, rehard surfacing, widening, guttering, and draining of streets, boulevards, and alleys; for grading, regrading, leveling, laying, relaying, paving, repaving, hard surfacing, and rehard surfacing of sidewalks; for constructing or reconstructing permanent pedestrian canopies over public sidewalks; and in connection with any of the foregoing, provide related lighting, landscaping, street furniture, signage, and other amenities as determined by the governing authority of the municipality;

(b) Order the construction, reconstruction, repair, renovation, excavation, grading, stabilization, and upgrading of greenbelts, swales, culverts, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, outfalls, canals, primary, secondary, and tertiary drains, water bodies, marshlands, and natural areas, all or part of a comprehensive stormwater management system, including the necessary appurtenances and structures thereto and including, but not limited to, dams, weirs, and pumps;

(c) Order the construction or reconstruction of water mains, water laterals, alternative water supply systems, including, but not limited to, reclaimed water, aquifer storage and recovery, and desalination systems, and other water distribution facilities, including the necessary appurtenances thereto;

(d) Pay for the relocation of utilities, including the placement underground of electrical, telephone, and cable television services, pursuant to voluntary agreement with the utility, but nothing contained in this paragraph shall affect a utility’s right to locate or relocate its facilities on its own initiative at its own expense;

(e) Provide for the construction or reconstruction of parks and other public recreational facilities and improvements, including appurtenances thereto;

(f) Provide for the construction or reconstruction of seawalls;

(g) Provide for the drainage and reclamation of wet, low, or overflowed lands;

(h) Provide for offstreet parking facilities, parking garages, or similar facilities;

(i) Provide for mass transportation systems;

(j) Provide for improvements to permit the passage and navigation of watercraft; and

(k) Provide for the payment of all or any part of the costs of any such improvements by levying and collecting special assessments on the abutting, adjoining, contiguous, or other specially benefited property.

However, offstreet parking facilities, parking garages, or other similar facilities and mass transportation systems must be approved by vote of a majority of the affected property owners. Any municipality which is legally obligated for providing capital improvements for water, alternative water supplies, including, but not limited to, reclaimed water, water from aquifer storage and recovery, and desalination systems, or sewer facilities within an unincorporated area of the county may recover the costs of the capital improvements by levying and collecting special assessments for the purposes authorized in this section on the specially benefited property; however, collections of the special assessment shall not take place until the specially benefited property connects to the capital improvement.

(2) Special assessments may be levied only for the purposes enumerated in this section and shall be levied only on benefited real property at a rate of assessment based on the special benefit accruing to such property from such improvements when the improvements funded by the special assessment provide a benefit which is different in type or degree from benefits provided to the community as a whole.

(3) Any municipality, subject to the approval of a majority of the affected property owners, may levy and collect special assessments against property benefited for the purpose of stabilizing and improving:

(a) Retail business districts,

(b) Wholesale business districts, or

or any combination of such districts, through promotion, management, marketing, and other similar services in such districts of the municipality. This subsection does not authorize a municipality to use bond proceeds to fund ongoing operations of these districts.

(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a municipality may not levy special assessments for the provision of fire protection services on lands classified as agricultural lands under s. 193.461 unless the land contains a residential dwelling or nonresidential farm building, with the exception of an agricultural pole barn, provided the nonresidential farm building exceeds a just value of $10,000. Such special assessments must be based solely on the special benefit accruing to that portion of the land consisting of the residential dwelling and curtilage, and qualifying nonresidential farm buildings. As used in this subsection, the term “agricultural pole barn” means a nonresidential farm building in which 70 percent or more of the perimeter walls are permanently open and allow free ingress and egress.

History.—s. 1, ch. 9298, 1923; CGL 3022; s. 1, ch. 59-396; s. 1, ch. 67-552; s. 1, ch. 78-360; s. 32, ch. 79-164; s. 1, ch. 82-198; s. 32, ch. 83-204; s. 1, ch. 83-337; s. 1, ch. 87-103; s. 39, ch. 91-45; s. 1, ch. 92-156; s. 2, ch. 94-344; s. 4, ch. 95-323; s. 2, ch. 2016-89.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 16 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1957–2024 · leading case: PBT Real Est., LLC v. Town of Palm Beach, 988 F.3d 1274 (11th Cir. 2021).

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PBT Real Est., LLC v. Town of Palm Beach, 988 F.3d 1274 (11th Cir. 2021). · cites it 2× “Fla. Stat. § 170.01 . 2 USCA11 Case: 18-13920 Date Filed: 02/22/2021 Page: 3 of 24 servicing their properties had already been undergrounded through a privately funded project.”

Contractors & Builders Ass'n v. City of Dunedin, 329 So. 2d 314 (Fla. 1976). · cites it 2× “Fla. Stat. § 170.01 (1973). The fees in controversy here are not special assessments.”

Lake Cnty. v. Water Oak Mgmt. Corp., 695 So. 2d 667 (Fla. 1997). · cites it 3× “NOTES [1] The district court obtained this language from section 170.01(2), Florida Statutes (1995), which governs the authority for municipalities to levy special assessments.”

City of Winter Springs v. State, 776 So. 2d 255 (Fla. 2001). · cites it 2× “[2] In this case, it was conceded that the City had the authority to issue the bonds, and there was no suggestion that the purposes for issuance of the bonds were not entirely proper.”

SID No. 596 v. THG Dev., 315 Neb. 926 (Neb. 2024). “19 Fla. Stat. Ann. § 170.01 (West 2021); Kan.”

Anderson v. City of North Miami, 99 So. 2d 861 (Fla. 1957). · cites it 4× “To adopt the opposite view, he continued, "would mean that once a municipality exercised its power to construct and pave a street and determined upon and completed a street of a given width, the municipality would have exhausted its authority as to selection of the width of the…”

Hanna v. City of Palm Bay, 579 So. 2d 320 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991). · cites it 3× “Upon consideration of the various cases presented by the parties to this appeal, we are constrained to agree with the appellants that there is no authority for the proposition that a city-wide repaving project can be financed by special assessments against abutting property…”

Cape Dev. Co. v. City of Cocoa Beach, 192 So. 2d 766 (Fla. 1966). · cites it 2× “Examination of the amendment to Section 170.01 amply illustrates the intent of the Legislature to expand and broaden the chapter, as it provides for improvements pertaining to storm sewers, sanitary sewers and drainage; whereas, previously, only improvements to streets and…”

Harris v. Wilson, 693 So. 2d 945 (Fla. 1997). “§ 170.01(2) (Fla.Stat.1995). We appreciate the point made by the Florida Supreme Court in its recent decision in Sarasota Church of Christ that a special assessment need not be limited to a specific area or class of property owners and that there may be a special benefit whether…”

Water Oak Mgmt. v. Lake Cnty., 673 So. 2d 135 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996). “§ 170.01(2) (Fla.Stat.1995). We appreciate the point made by the Florida Supreme Court in its recent decision in Sarasota Church of Christ that a special assessment need not be limited to a specific area or class of property owners and that there may be a special benefit whether…”

City of Hallandale v. Meekins, 237 So. 2d 318 (Fla. 4th DCA 1970). “1967, Section 170.01, F.S.A. expressly provides that the entire construction costs may be assessed.”

Olde Florida Investments, Ltd. v. Port of the Islands Cmty. Improvement Dist. (In Re Olde Florida Investments, Ltd.), 293 B.R. 531 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 2003). “§ 170.01 (l)(k), which provides in essence that no collection of a special assessment shall be made until the specially benefited property is connected to the capital improvement.”

Show all 16 citing cases →

— 170.01(1) — 1 case

City of Winter Springs v. State, 776 So. 2d 255 (Fla. 2001). “[2] In this case, it was conceded that the City had the authority to issue the bonds, and there was no suggestion that the purposes for issuance of the bonds were not entirely proper.”

— 170.01(2) — 4 cases

Lake Cnty. v. Water Oak Mgmt. Corp., 695 So. 2d 667 (Fla. 1997). “NOTES [1] The district court obtained this language from section 170.01(2), Florida Statutes (1995), which governs the authority for municipalities to levy special assessments.”

Hanna v. City of Palm Bay, 579 So. 2d 320 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991). “Upon consideration of the various cases presented by the parties to this appeal, we are constrained to agree with the appellants that there is no authority for the proposition that a city-wide repaving project can be financed by special assessments against abutting property…”

— 170.01(l)(g) — 1 case

Davis Water & Waste Indus., Inc. v. Embry Dev. Corp., 603 So. 2d 1357 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992).

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