Project Types
How FDOT widening, interchange and alignment work reaches private property, and where the value goes.
Highway work is the most common source of condemnation in Florida. The Department of Transportation acquires right of way for widening, new interchanges, realignments and safety improvements, and district offices run acquisitions across the state continuously.
On most parcels the acquisition is a strip along the frontage rather than the whole property. That makes the important question not what the strip is worth, but what the project does to everything behind it.
The short answer
A highway take is usually partial. Florida requires full compensation, which reaches the effect on the land you keep, and on a trading site that effect is often larger than the land value.
Relocated driveways, closed medians and changed turning movements.
Read moreA strip acquired with the balance of the parcel remaining.
Read moreHarm to the land left behind.
Read moreWhat the residue is worth once the road is built.
Read moreEffects on a business trading from the site.
Read moreFrontage, parking and circulation.
Read moreThe alignment is settled and right of way plans drawn.
Your property appears with the proposed take shown against it.
The Department obtains a valuation of the land and the effect on the remainder.
Section 73.015 requires a good faith attempt to negotiate, with a written offer and the appraisal behind it.
You review, question the assumptions, and may present your own valuation.
Chapter 73 governs the proceeding if no agreement is reached.
Under chapter 74 the Department may take possession and title in advance of final judgment against a deposit that secures compensation.
Section 73.071 covers value, severance damages and business damages where they apply.
Sections 73.091 and 73.092 place reasonable defence costs and attorney fees on the condemning authority.
Find your driveway on the plan sheet. A relocated or narrowed entrance is a compensable change, not a detail.
A raised median removing inbound turns from one direction can halve a retail catchment without taking an extra square foot.
Land left above or below the finished road surface may be far less usable than the flat verge it replaced.
Florida is one of the few states allowing business damages. On a highway frontage take that is frequently the largest element of the claim.
Chapter 74 allows possession and title in advance of final judgment through a declaration of taking and a deposit sufficient to secure and fully compensate those entitled. The amount is determined afterwards.
Section 73.071(3)(b) allows business damages in defined circumstances, including that the business has been established more than five years where the taking occurs on or after 1 January 2005. Most states allow nothing for this.
Section 73.091 makes the condemning authority responsible for reasonable costs of the defence, and section 73.092 governs attorney fees, calculated on the benefit obtained for the owner.
Often yes. Frontage takes carry access, parking and visibility effects that reach far beyond the area acquired.
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