Judges: Robert L. Shevin, Attorney General Prepared by: Walter Kelly, Assistant Attorney General
Filed Date: 12/29/1978
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Joseph W. Landers, Jr. Secretary Department of Environmental Regulation Tallahassee
QUESTION:
May an agency place as conditions in a default license issued pursuant to s.
SUMMARY:
Default licenses issued pursuant to s.
Section
The effect of s. 10, Ch.
76-131 is to require the licensing agency to do certain things and to make certain decisions by a time certain. The law deems or considers the failure to so act the equivalent of an approval of the application and requires the issuance of the license forthwith. Section 10, 76-131 does not repose or vest any discretion in the licensing agency with respect to the issuance of the license in the statutorily specified circumstances.
It is clear that the legislative intent was that an agency must act within a specified time frame or the applicant will in effect become entitled to be issued the license applied for by default. However, s.
Section
When an application for a license is made as required by law, the agency shall conduct the proceedings required with reasonable dispatch and with due regard to the rights and privileges of all affected parties or aggrieved persons. . . . Every application for license shall be approved or denied within 90 days after receipt of the original application or receipt of the timely requested additional information or correction or errors or omissions. . . . Any application for a license not approved or denied within the 90-day period, within 15 days after conclusion of a public hearing held on the application, or within 45 days after the recommended order is submitted to the agency and the parties, whichever is latest, shall be deemed approved and, subject to the satisfactory completion of an examination, if required as a prerequisite to licensure, the license shall be issued. . . . Each agency, upon issuing or denying a license, shall state with particularity the grounds or basis for the issuance . . . of same, except where issurance is a ministerial act. . . . (Emphasis supplied.)
In construing s.
Therefore, based upon the foregoing, the answer to your question is that substantive requirements of Ch. 403, F. S., and rules adopted pursuant thereto are applicable to default licenses in the same manner as licenses issued in the normal process. Thus to the extent that standard conditions of a license, such as reporting of water quality violation or operating reports, are required by Ch. 403, F. S., or rules duly adopted thereunder, such conditions are equally applicable to default licenses.
Prepared by: Walter Kelly, Assistant Attorney General