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4/14/2010
Senate gives nod to FLPA Amendments |
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On April 13th, the Georgia State Senate on a 42 to 0 vote approved House Bill 1028, the Georgia Forestry Association's initiative to make the Forest Land Protection Act friendlier to large landowners who may wish to enroll timberland in the program. The bill goes back to the House for that body to agree to a minor housekeeping change made in the Senate and then to the Governor for his signature.
House Bill 1028 is necessary to correct language in the original legislation that unfortunately could not be corrected in the rulemaking process last year. HB 1028 will clarify a provision of the Forest Land Protection Act of 2008 that has proven to be an obstacle to some landowners who otherwise would place some of their land in a 15-year covenant, thus protecting it from development or conversion to non-forest uses. Here's the situation:
Under the current law, if a landowner enrolls forest land in a 15-year covenant and later sells or transfers a portion of the covenanted property to another owner, the entire property remains under the original covenant. If the purchaser or transferee violates the covenant by converting the property to a non-forest use, the entire covenant is deemed to have been 'breached', a circumstance which triggers penalties and payment of taxes that would have been due had the property not been in a covenant. The intent of the original legislation was that the breaching party would be responsible for the penalties and interest that are due on that portion of the land on which the covenant was breached.
Unfortunately, there is language in the 2008 enabling legislation (HB 1211) that could create a liability for the owner of the original covenant even though he did not commit the breach. HB 1028 will correct that situation so that it is clear that the breaching party, the responsible party, pays. Again, this was the original intent of the Forest Land Protection Act created by Amendment 1.
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