[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2260 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2260

 To allow property owners to maintain existing structures designed for 
            human habitation at Lake Sidney Lanier, Georgia.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 21, 2000

 Mr. Coverdell introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To allow property owners to maintain existing structures designed for 
            human habitation at Lake Sidney Lanier, Georgia.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Lake Sidney Lanier Home Preservation 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act, the following definitions apply:
            (1) Lake.--The term ``Lake'' means the Lake Sidney Lanier, 
        Georgia, project of the United States Army Corps of Engineers 
        authorized by the Act of July 24, 1946 (60 Stat. 634).
            (2) Fee lands.--The term ``fee lands'' means the lands 
        acquired in fee title by the United States for the Lake.
            (3) Flowage easement.--The term ``flowage easement'' means 
        the interest in land which the United States acquired that 
        provides the right to flood to the elevation 1,085 feet above 
        mean sea level, among other rights, on lands surrounding the 
        lake.
            (4) Easement prohibition.--The term ``easement 
        prohibition'' means the rights acquired by the United States in 
        the flowage easements to prohibit structures for human 
        habitation.
            (5) Eligible property owner.--The term ``eligible property 
        owner'' means a person that owns a structure for human 
        habitation that was constructed prior to January 1, 2000, and 
        is located upon fee lands or in violation of the flowage 
        easement.
            (6) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Army.

SEC. 3. HUMAN HABITATION PROHIBITION.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 120 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish, and provide 
public notice of, a program to convey the right to maintain existing 
structures for human habitation on fee lands or to release the easement 
prohibition for existing structures for human habitation from the 
flowage easements to eligible property owners.
    (b) Regulation.--To carry out subsection (a), the Secretary shall 
issue regulations that--
            (1) require the Corps of Engineers to suspend any 
        activities to require eligible property owners to remove 
        structures for human habitation encroaching on fee lands or 
        flowage easements;
            (2) provide that a person who owns a structure for human 
        habitation on land adjacent to the Lake shall have a period of 
        1 year after the date of enactment of this Act to request that 
        the Corps of Engineers resurvey the property of the person to 
        determine if the person is an eligible property owner under 
        this Act and to pay the costs of the resurvey to the Secretary 
        for deposit in the Corps of Engineers project account in 
        accordance with section 2695 of title 10, United States Code;
            (3) provide that when a determination is made, either 
        through private survey or through the Government's boundary 
        line maintenance surveys, that a structure for human habitation 
        is situated upon the fee lands or flowage easements, the Corps 
        of Engineers shall notify immediately the property owner by 
        certified mail, and the property owner shall have a period of 
        90 days from receipt of the notice in which to establish that 
        the structure was constructed prior to January 1, 2000, and, 
        therefore, that the property owner is an eligible property 
        owner under this Act;
            (4) provide that any private survey is subject to review 
        and approval by the Corps of Engineers to ensure that it 
        conforms to the Government's boundary line;
            (5) require the Corps of Engineers to offer to an eligible 
        property owner either a conveyance or release that--
                    (A) on fee lands, conveys by quitclaim deed the 
                minimum land required to maintain the human habitation 
                structure, reserving the right to flood to the 
                elevation 1,085 feet above mean sea level, if 
                applicable;
                    (B) in flowage easements, releases by quitclaim 
                deed the prohibition of structures for human 
                habitation;
                    (C) provides that the existing structure cannot be 
                extended further onto fee lands or into the flowage 
                easement nor additional structures for human habitation 
                placed in either fee lands or flowage easement; and
                    (D) provides that the United States shall not be 
                liable or responsible for damage to property or injury 
                to persons caused by operation of the Lake and no claim 
                to compensation shall accrue from the exercise of the 
                flowage easement rights and that such waiver of any and 
                all claims against the United States shall be a 
                covenant running with the land and is fully binding 
                upon heirs, successors, assigns, and purchasers of the 
                property so released; and
            (6) provide that the eligible property owner either shall 
        agree to an offer under paragraph (5) within 90 days after the 
        offer is made by the Corps of Engineers or shall comply with 
        the real property rights of the United States and remove the 
        structure for human habitation and any other unauthorized real 
        or personal property.
    (c) Option To Purchase Insurance.--Nothing in this Act precludes a 
property owner from purchasing flood insurance to which he or she may 
be eligible.
    (d) Prior Encroachment Resolutions.--Nothing in this Act shall 
affect previously resolved encroachments at the Lake, whether through 
sale, exchange, voluntary removal, or alteration or removal through 
litigation.
    (e) Prior Real Property Rights.--Nothing in this Act shall take 
away, diminish, or eliminate any other real property rights acquired by 
the United States for the Lake or shall affect the ability of the 
United States to require the removal of any and all encroachments that 
are constructed or placed on United States real property or flowage 
easements at the Lake after December 31, 1999.
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