07 LC
25 4587
House
Bill 445
By:
Representative Royal of the
171st
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Code Section 48-5-7.4 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating
to current use assessment for bona fide conservation use property, residential
transitional property, application procedures, penalties for breach of covenant,
classification on tax digest, and annual report, so as to change certain
provisions relating to buffers adjacent to rivers or perennial streams; to
provide for current use assessment for certain undeveloped land areas within
buffer zones established by law or local ordinance adjacent to rivers, perennial
streams, or reservoirs; to provide for exemptions from certain covenant and
penalty provisions; to provide for loss current use assessment in certain
circumstances; to provide a contingent effective date; to provide for
applicability; to provide for contingent repeal; to repeal conflicting laws; and
for other purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Code
Section 48-5-7.4 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to current
use assessment for bona fide conservation use property, residential transitional
property, application procedures, penalties for breach of covenant,
classification on tax digest, and annual report, is amended by revising
subparagraph (a)(2)(F) as follows:
"(F)
River or stream corridors or buffers which shall be defined as those undeveloped
lands which are:
(i)
Adjacent to
buffer zones
described in division (ii) of this subparagraph
along rivers
and,
reservoirs, or perennial streams that are
within the 100 year flood plain as depicted on official maps prepared by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
and which
adjacent lands remain in their natural, undisturbed state of
vegetation; or
(ii)
Within buffer zones adjacent to
rivers,
reservoirs, or perennial streams, which
buffer zones are established by law or local ordinance and within which
land-disturbing activity is prohibited
and which
lands remain in their natural, undisturbed state of vegetation. For purposes of
this division, the term 'land-disturbing activity' has the meaning provided by
Code Section 12-7-3; provided, however, that lands subjected to agricultural
operations and forestry land management operations that are exempted by Code
Section 12-7-17 from the provisions of Chapter 7 of Title 12, the 'Erosion and
Sedimentation Act of 1975,' shall not be considered disturbed for purposes of
this division;"
SECTION
2.
Said
Code section is further amended by revising subsection (u) as
follows:
"(u)
Reserved.
(1) Land
areas within buffer zones that qualify as bona fide conservation use property
under division (a)(2)(F)(ii) of this Code section shall be exempt from any
covenant requirements under this Code section and any procedures or penalties
related to such covenants or breaches thereof, including but not limited to the
provisions of subsections (d), (e), (g), (h), (i), (j), (l), (m), (n), (p), (q),
and (x) of this Code section.
(2)
If any land-disturbing activity is conducted on land within such a buffer zone
by or with the permission of the property owner after the current use assessment
for such land has been claimed by and allowed to such owner, the current use
assessment shall not, for the taxable year in which such land-disturbing
activity occurred and all taxable years thereafter, apply for the same owner as
to all such buffer zone areas required by law or local ordinance that are within
a buffer zone on the same contiguous
tract."
SECTION
3.
This
Act shall become effective on January 1, 2009, and shall apply to all taxable
years beginning on or after such date; except that if an amendment to the
Constitution of the State of Georgia authorizing an exemption from the covenant
requirement for bona fide conservation use property as to stream buffer areas is
not ratified at the general election in 2008, this Act shall not become
effective and shall be repealed in its entirety on January 1, 2009.
SECTION
4.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.