Property Types
Groves, ranch and row crop land, and what a corridor does to a working operation.
Florida agriculture covers citrus and other groves, sugar, row crops, nurseries, ranch land and timber, and public projects cross all of it. A highway corridor, a transmission line or a water management scheme will often take a narrow strip and leave the owner with most of their acreage.
That can make an offer look generous until you consider what the remaining land can still do. Farmland is valued on what it produces and how it is worked, and a corridor that severs a block, interrupts drainage or blocks equipment movement damages the remainder in ways acreage does not capture.
The short answer
Do not value the strip. Value the operation before the project and the operation afterwards, and make sure the severance analysis reflects how the land is actually farmed.
A corridor across a working holding.
Read moreHarm to the blocks either side.
Read moreWhat the land can still do afterwards.
Read moreWhat the corridor still permits.
Read moreField entrances and internal crossings.
Read moreWhere the operation is a business of standing.
Read moreLand on the far side of a corridor may be uneconomic to work if equipment cannot reach it.
Florida agriculture depends on ditches, canals, pumps and controlled drainage. A corridor or embankment that interrupts them affects far more than the strip.
In a grove the loss is the productive life of the trees removed, not simply the ground they stood on.
Sprayer and harvester widths and turning circles are specific. A crossing suitable for a pickup may not suit the machinery in use.
Pivots, drip lines and pump locations are expensive to reconfigure and sometimes impossible.
Where a farming business qualifies, section 73.071(3)(b) business damages may form part of the claim.
Often yes, and the reverse of what owners expect. A narrow corridor across a working holding can damage the remainder far more than its acreage suggests.
Temporary construction easements and the disturbance they cause are part of what is acquired. Raise it specifically rather than assuming it is included.
It depends entirely on the terms. A non exclusive easement may permit cultivation. One prohibiting deep tillage or structures may not.
An appraiser with genuine agricultural experience will reach different conclusions from a generalist, particularly on groves and irrigated land.
Explore Florida resources matched to your property type, the project affecting it, and the stage you have reached.
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