State v. Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency
| Decision Date | 11 December 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 57997,57997 |
| Parties | The STATE of Florida et al. and Homeowners and Tenants Protective Association, Inc., etc., Appellants, v. MIAMI BEACH REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY, etc., Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Janet Reno, State Atty., and Milton Robbins, Asst. State Atty., Miami, for appellants.
W. Robert Olive, Jr. and Hugh M. Taylor of Bryant, Miller & Olive, Tallahassee, and Murray H. Dubbin of Dubbin, Schiff, Berkman & Dubbin, Miami, for appellee.
Joseph A. Wanick, Miami, for intervening appellant.
William S. Turnbull, Orlando, and Fred W. Baggett of Roberts, Miller, Baggett, LaFace, Richard & Wiser, Tallahassee, for Florida Downtown Development Ass'n, amicus curiae.
This cause is before the Court on appeal of a judgment of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, in and for Dade County, validating bonds proposed for issue by the Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency. The State of Florida and intervenors appeal; we have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(2), Fla.Const.; § 75.08, Fla.Stat. (1979). We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency was created by the commission of the city of Miami Beach pursuant to the Community Redevelopment Act of 1969, chapter 69-305, Laws of Florida, codified as chapter 163, part III, Florida Statutes (1975). The act was amended in 1977 to authorize "tax increment financing" of community redevelopment projects without referendum. Ch. 77-391, Laws of Fla.; see ch. 163, pt. III, Fla.Stat. (1977).
The State Attorney of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, on behalf of the state, has raised a number of issues on appeal of the validation decree.
Section 163.335(1), Florida Statutes (1977), declares that slums and blighted areas in the state are "a serious and growing menace, injurious to the public health, safety, morals, and welfare...." It states further that the existence of slums and blighted areas contributes to "the spread of disease and crime...." Such areas are "an economic and social liability imposing onerous burdens which decrease the tax base and reduce tax revenues," and their existence "impairs or arrests sound growth, retards the provision of housing accommodations, aggravates traffic problems and substantially hampers the elimination of traffic hazards and the improvement of traffic facilities; ...." Finally, subsection (1) finds and concludes
that the prevention and elimination of slums and blight is a matter of state policy and state concern in order that the state and its counties and municipalities shall not continue to be endangered by areas which are focal centers of disease, promote juvenile delinquency, and consume an excessive proportion of its revenues because of the extra services required for police, fire, accident, hospitalization, and other forms of public protection, services, and facilities.
Section 163.335(2) contains a declaration of the range of public policy responses that are deemed appropriate in dealing with the problems of slums and blight. Some slums and blighted areas "can be conserved and rehabilitated through appropriate public action...." By the "means provided in this part," such conservation or rehabilitation may be effected so as to eliminate, remedy, or prevent the "evils enumerated." Other slums and blighted areas, in contrast, "or portions thereof, may require acquisition, clearance, and disposition subject to use restrictions, as provided in this part, since the prevailing condition of decay may make impracticable the reclamation of the area by conservation or rehabilitation."
Section 163.335(3) finds and declares that redevelopment as contemplated by the act is a public purpose for which public funds may be expended and the power of eminent domain and the police power exercised.
Section 163.340(7) defines a slum as follows:
(7) "Slum area" means an area in which there is a predominance of buildings or improvements, whether residential or nonresidential, which by reason of dilapidation, deterioration, age or obsolescence, inadequate provision for ventilation, light, air, sanitation, or open spaces, high density of population and overcrowding, the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire or other causes, or any combination of such factors is conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency, or crime and is detrimental to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare.
The act defines a blighted area as follows:
(8) "Blighted area" means an area in which there are a substantial number of slum, deteriorated, or deteriorating structures and conditions which endanger life or property by fire or other causes or one or more of the following factors which substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of a county or municipality and is a menace to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare in its present condition and use:
(a) Predominance of defective or inadequate street layout;
(b) Faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility or usefulness;
(c) Unsanitary or unsafe conditions;
(d) Deterioration of site or other improvements;
(e) Tax or special assessment delinquency exceeding the fair value of the land; and
(f) Diversity of ownership or defective or unusual conditions of title which prevents the free alienability of land within the deteriorated or hazardous area.
§ 163.340(8), Fla.Stat. (1977).
The essential difference between the two concepts as defined by the legislature is that a slum is an area where conditions actively and directly menace the essential public order while a blighted area is one where conditions are not conducive to sound growth and the public good is impaired by the various impediments to such growth.
Section 163.350 provides that general purpose local government units counties and municipalities may, for the purposes of the act, formulate "a workable program for utilizing appropriate private and public resources to eliminate and prevent the development or spread of slums and urban blight." To the objectives of encouraging needed community rehabilitation and providing for the redevelopment of slums and blighted areas, the statute again indicates a range of responses that may be appropriate:
Such workable program may include provision for the prevention of the spread of blight into areas of the county or municipality which are free from blight through diligent enforcement of housing, zoning, and occupancy controls and standards; the rehabilitation or conservation of slum and blighted areas or portions thereof by replanning, removing congestion, providing parks, playgrounds and other public improvements, encouraging voluntary rehabilitation, and compelling the repair and rehabilitation of deteriorated or deteriorating structures; and the clearance and redevelopment of slum and blighted areas or portions thereof.
§ 163.350, Fla.Stat. (1977).
Section 163.355 requires that, in order for a county or municipality to exercise the authority conferred by the act, its governing body must find and declare by resolution that: (1) one or more slums or blighted areas exist within its boundaries and (2) that rehabilitation, conservation, "redevelopment," or a combination thereof is necessary "in the interest of the public health, safety, morals, or welfare of the residents of such county or municipality."
After having made such a finding of necessity, the governing body of the county or municipality may create a community redevelopment agency, separately constituted if necessary under section 163.356, or it may constitute itself as the community redevelopment agency. § 163.357. The agency's authority includes "all the powers necessary or convenient to carry out and effectuate the purposes and provisions of this part," except that the governing body of the county or municipality retains the power to: (1) designate an area as a slum or blighted, determine the appropriateness of a redevelopment project, and hold public hearings on these matters; (2) finally approve redevelopment plans; (3) authorize the issuance of bonds; and (4) approve the acquisition, demolition, removal, or disposal of property and assume responsibility for losses. § 163.358.
In a chartered county, the powers conferred by the act are conferred on the county governing body. The county may, however, delegate the redevelopment powers to a municipality within its boundaries. § 163.410.
Section 163.360 provides that, once the county or municipal governing body has determined that an area is a slum or is blighted, and has designated it as appropriate for redevelopment, it may adopt a redevelopment plan by following the steps and procedures outlined in the act. A community redevelopment "plan" is a description of a community redevelopment "project." It must indicate any acquisition, demolition, and removal of structures, as well as any improvements to be constructed and land uses provided for after redevelopment. In considering any proposed redevelopment plans, and before adopting one, the governing body must hold public hearings. The act requires detailed findings on the propriety of a proposed redevelopment plan.
Section 163.370 provides that the redevelopment powers conferred include the authority to carry out projects involving the acquisition of slums and blighted areas, the demolition of buildings, the construction of streets, utilities, parks, playgrounds, and other improvements, disposition of properties at market value, programs of voluntary rehabilitation, and rehabilitation and sale of acquired structures. 1
The governing body's findings must include, § 163.360(6)(a), and the redevelopment project may include, consideration of the problem of and provision for relocation of displaced residents of the redevelopment area. § 163.370(1)(i).
In section 163.375, the act provides that counties, municipalities, and redevelopment agencies shall have...
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