Duke Energy Transmission Line Easements: A Guide For Florida Property Owners

If a land agent has contacted you about Duke Energy transmission line easements, the offer in your hand is a starting number, not a final one. Duke Energy Florida, LLC is an investor-owned utility with condemnation authority, but Florida law puts real leverage on your side, including a doubled court deposit and fee shifting once a condemnation case is filed. The worst move a Marion County owner can make is signing a utility easement agreement before anyone independent has valued what the corridor actually costs the property.

Jimerson Birr represents Florida landowners against condemning authorities statewide. If a Duke corridor touches your land, request an eminent domain consultation first.

What Duke Energy Is Building In And Around Ocala

Duke Energy is building an approximately 19-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line between its Ross Prairie and Shaw substations to serve, in Duke’s words, “those who live and work in Ocala and Marion County.” Duke calls it “one of more than a dozen grid improvement projects” across Marion, Levy, and Alachua counties, so owners in all three should read these documents the same way.

Duke announced the selected route in summer 2024, put easement acquisition on its timeline starting that fall, and scheduled construction to begin in 2026. Duke states the route “maximizes the use of existing easements,” but also confirms that “new easements and temporary construction easements will be needed in some areas” (Duke Energy, Ross Prairie to Shaw Transmission Project). Duke has published no update since, so any parcel still unacquired should be treated as a near-term condemnation candidate.

When routes were first circulated, the right-of-way was planned at roughly 100 feet wide, requiring vegetation clearing and periodic herbicide treatment, and about 5,000 people within 500 feet got letters (WFTV 9). Marion County cases are tried in Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit, headquartered in Ocala.

Can You Refuse A Duke Energy Transmission Line Easement?

You can refuse the offer, but you generally cannot refuse the easement. Section 361.01, Florida Statutes, lets a corporation organized to construct, maintain, or operate public works appropriate private land upon due compensation, and the Florida Supreme Court has identified that section as the source of an electric utility’s power to condemn (Seadade Industries, Inc. v. Florida Power & Light Co., 245 So. 2d 209 (Fla. 1971)). Chapters 73 and 74 supply the procedure, not the authority.

Refusing moves the dispute from Duke’s valuation to a jury’s, and Florida’s statutes favor owners far more inside a lawsuit than outside one.

• Refusing the first offer is normal and costs you nothing in compensation later recovered.
• A condemnor may take only what is reasonably necessary, so the scope of the taking is negotiable.
• Section 73.015(1) requires “the condemning authority” to negotiate in good faith before filing, deliver a written offer, and allow at least 30 days to respond (Fla. Stat. ch. 73).

That subsection also reaches the appraisal report the offer is based on, plus the right-of-way maps and construction plans to the extent Duke has prepared them, within 15 business days of your request. One honest caveat: chapter 73 never defines “condemning authority,” and no Florida appellate court has applied subsection (1) to an investor-owned utility, though the Legislature limited the neighboring subsections to public bodies and left this one unqualified. Ask in writing and preserve the point. Our eminent domain team does that on day one.

How Wide Is A Transmission Line Easement, And What Does It Restrict?

An easement transfers use rights, not ownership, but the restrictions often behave like a taking of the whole strip. Width is driven by voltage, pole design, and conductor clearance, so a 230-kV corridor is typically far wider than a distribution easement. Inside it, expect bans on structures, height limits on vegetation, access rights for crews, and recurring maintenance.

Those restrictions are exactly how easements affect property value, and they are negotiable terms, not fixed law. Width, access points, gates, fencing, crop and timber treatment, restoration duties, and co-location rights all belong in the document.

The width that binds you is whatever the easement you sign says it is, not what a project brochure once said.

Permanent Easements Versus Temporary Construction Easements

Duke’s materials confirm the project needs both. They are separately compensable and valued differently.

1. The permanent easement is measured by the property’s value before and after the encumbrance.
2. A temporary construction easement covers the utility’s exclusive use during the build, and valuing it properly can add materially to the recovery.
3. Tenants and agricultural operators may hold their own interests, so tenant and leaseholder compensation must be sorted out early. One caveat: the presuit business-owner notice and 180-day business-damage claim process in section 73.015(2) applies only to public-body condemnors, so a Duke land agent owes a tenant none of it.

How Much Should Duke Energy Pay For A Transmission Line Easement?

Florida’s constitutional standard is full compensation: the value of what is taken plus damages to everything left behind. Duke’s appraiser works for Duke, and common flaws in the condemnor’s appraisal appear often enough that no owner should accept one opinion of value. See also what just compensation includes.

Severance Damages To The Remainder

Section 73.071(3)(b), Florida Statutes, requires the jury to award damages to the remaining property when only part of a parcel is taken. On a transmission corridor this is frequently the largest element of the claim.

A wide band can bisect a development plan, strand acreage, kill a building envelope, or destroy the remainder’s highest and best use. Those are severance damages, and owners with entitlement plans should bring in counsel and a real estate development view before signing.

Why Statutory Business Damages Usually Are Not Available Against A Utility

Section 73.071(3)(b) is also where business damages live, but only “when the action is by the Department of Transportation, county, municipality, board, district or other public body for the condemnation of a right-of-way.” Duke Energy Florida is an investor-owned utility, not a public body.

In a Duke Energy taking, the business damages remedy owners rely on in FDOT road cases generally is not on the table, which makes severance damages and the easement terms themselves the entire battlefield. Owners applying the FDOT playbook, including those tracking what I-75 widening means for Marion County property owners, need a different strategy. That public-versus-private line is why eminent domain by private infrastructure companies stays contested in Florida.

The Chapter 74 Rules That Cut In Your Favor

Chapter 74 lets Duke take possession before final judgment, but it makes a private utility pay twice as much up front. Section 74.011 expressly lists a “public utility corporation” among the petitioners that may take possession and title in advance of final judgment.

Section 74.051(2) sets the deposit. For the state, a county, a city, or another public body, it must be at least the petitioner’s estimate of value. For a petitioner that is not a public body, the deposit must be double that estimate (Fla. Stat. ch. 74). Title vests on deposit, and under section 74.061 interest runs from surrender of possession until payment on the amount by which the verdict exceeds the estimate in the declaration of taking.

Section 74.051(3) adds a clock written for utilities: where an electric utility is appropriating property for a generation plant, an associated facility, a substation, or a power line, the Legislature directs the court, when practicable, to hold the order-of-taking hearing within 120 days after the petition is filed and to rule within 30 days after it closes.

If you wait for the hearing notice to start looking for a lawyer, most of that window is gone. Track the quick-take timeline and the Florida eminent domain process.

Who Pays Your Attorney’s Fees In A Duke Energy Case

Once a case is filed, section 73.091 requires the petitioner to pay your attorney’s fees plus all reasonable costs incurred in the defense of the proceedings in the circuit court, including reasonable appraisal fees. Section 73.092(1) ties the fee to the benefits achieved for you, measured against the last written offer made before you hired counsel: 33 percent of the first $250,000, 25 percent from $250,000 to $1 million, and 20 percent above that. Fees for defeating an order of taking or for supplemental proceedings are set under section 73.092(2) on reasonableness factors instead.

One limitation matters. The presuit fee-and-cost recovery in section 73.015(4) applies, by its terms, only when the action is by a public body “for the condemnation of a road right-of-way.” A purely presuit settlement with a Duke land agent therefore carries no statutory fee recovery, which is why the timing of your response should be a legal decision, not a mailbox decision. More on recovery of attorney fees.

What To Do When A Duke Energy Land Agent Contacts You

1. Do not sign the easement agreement, a survey permission form, or a release.
2. Request Duke’s appraisal report, right-of-way maps, and construction plans in writing.
3. Photograph and document the property in its current condition.
4. Get an independent appraisal that values the remainder, not just the strip.
5. Call counsel before responding, so the fee baseline and the record are both protected.

Then review what landowners should know before accepting an offer and negotiation strategies for better settlements. If the corridor cuts your value, consider appealing your assessment.

Talk To Jimerson Birr Before You Sign Anything

Jimerson Birr is the Florida firm property owners call when a condemning authority shows up, whether a state agency, a county, or an investor-owned utility. Our work on utility corridor takings, including FPL transmission line easements, carries directly to Duke Energy transmission line easements in Marion County.

Involving a Jimerson Birr eminent domain attorney early is one of the few decisions here that can move the number materially, because the fee benchmark is the last offer made before you retain counsel. Contact our Florida eminent domain attorneys or request a consultation, and we will explain how fee recovery works in a private-utility matter before you engage us.