Eminent domain in Marion County is a line item with a fiscal year attached. FDOT’s work program adopted July 1, 2026 shows five projects with money budgeted to buy private land, four state funded and one local. The largest inside the county is not on I-75. It is State Road 40, where FDOT says acquisition begins in late 2026 and that it will contact affected owners directly.
The clock that decides your outcome is not FDOT’s construction schedule, it is the 30 days that begin when the state’s notice is served. Under section 73.015(1)(b), Florida Statutes, you get at least 30 days after receiving the notice before the authority can file suit. Read that subsection carefully, because the clock can also start if certified mail to your address on the county tax roll comes back undeliverable. That counts as compliance and the 30 days run anyway. If you own Marion County acreage and live elsewhere, confirm the mailing address on your tax roll now.
Our Florida eminent domain attorneys represent landowners against FDOT, counties, cities, and utilities.
Which Marion County Projects Have Money to Buy Land?
Five projects carry a funded right-of-way phase in the adopted program.
| FDOT item | Project | Right-of-way funded, FY2027-2031 |
|---|---|---|
| 452074-2 | I-75, south of SR 44 to SR 200 (Marion and Sumter) | $45,574,642 |
| 410674-3 | SR 40, east of CR 314 to east of CR 314A | $45,011,745 |
| 435209-1 | I-75 at NW 49th Street, Ocala | $21,359,221 |
| 452074-1 | I-75, SR 200 to SR 326 | $13,872,469 |
| 457555-2 | NW 80th Avenue Segment 2 (local funds) | $4,300,000 |
Figures come from the Five-Year Work Program adopted July 1, 2026. SR 40 is the largest acquisition wholly inside Marion County. Item 452074-2 is larger but spans two counties.
State Road 40 Is the Clearest Exposure, and It Begins Late 2026
FDOT states that right-of-way acquisition on this segment is expected to begin in late 2026, and that affected property owners will be contacted directly by FDOT to begin discussions (FDOT, Project 410674-3).
FDOT says the proposed design would widen 6.14 miles from east of CR 314 to east of CR 314A to two 12-foot lanes in each direction, separated by a 40-foot grassed median, with wildlife crossings throughout. The segment is in design, and FDOT’s page states the project is not currently funded for construction.
That combination is the strongest position a Florida landowner can occupy. The state is buying the corridor years ahead of any bulldozer, so no schedule pressure is forcing you toward a quick number.
Check which segment you are on, because the answer changes everything. On the segment west, item 410674-2, FDOT states all right-of-way acquisition has been completed. On the segment east, item 410674-4, neither acquisition nor construction is funded. Three adjacent stretches of the same highway, three completely different positions for the owners on them.
The Three I-75 Projects, and a Question You Should Ask FDOT
Two FDOT sources do not agree about I-75, and the disagreement matters to you.
The adopted work program funds right-of-way phases on all three I-75 items into fiscal 2029, most of it in the land purchase phase. But FDOT’s Moving I-75 Forward project pages schedule right of way for these projects in 2025 (FDOT, Moving I-75 Forward). Both are FDOT documents and public records do not reconcile them.
If you own I-75 frontage and receive anything from a right-of-way agent, ask which project number and which phase affects your parcel before you respond. That single question tells you whether you are in a finished acquisition, a cleanup phase, or a live one.
The projects themselves: item 452074-2 runs 23 miles from south of SR 44 to SR 200 through Marion and Sumter counties, in construction, completion estimated summer 2028 (FDOT, Project 452074-2). Item 452074-1 adds auxiliary lanes and interchange improvements from SR 200 to SR 326 through Ocala. Item 435209-1 builds a diverging diamond interchange at NW 49th Street at a construction cost of about $59.4 million. FDOT states it will accommodate growth in northern Marion County, relieve surrounding interchanges, and facilitate access to a new Buc-ee’s planned for the area (FDOT, Project 435209-1).
A new interchange creates access where none existed and reroutes it where it did, the fact pattern behind most Florida access and business damage claims. See what happens to access, parking, and other business-critical features in a taking.
NW 80th Avenue, Where the County Is the Condemnor
The fifth funded acquisition is not FDOT’s. NW 80th Avenue Segment 2 carries $4,300,000 of right-of-way money in fiscal 2027, all local dollars, in the horse country corridor west of Ocala.
Counties and cities hold condemnation power and must follow the same chapter 73 procedures. A letter with a county logo carries no fewer obligations than one from the state, and because a county acquiring a road right of way is a listed condemnor, business damages remain available.
What Does Florida Require a Condemnor to Pay?
Under section 73.071(3)(a) and (b), Florida Statutes, a jury awards the value of the property taken plus, where less than the whole parcel is taken, damages to the remainder caused by the taking. That covers lost frontage, a shallow remainder, changed grade, blocked visibility, and rerouted drainage. See severance damages in Florida.
Highest and best use, not current use, sets the value of the land taken. On the SR 40 and NW 80th Avenue corridors, the gap between pasture priced as pasture and pasture priced for development potential is often the largest number in the case.
Here is the counterweight most owners never hear about. Under section 73.071(4), where the action is by FDOT, a county, a municipality, a board, a district, or another public body for a road, canal, levee, or water control facility right of way, any enhancement in the value of your remaining adjoining land caused by the new road is offset against your remainder damages. The offset has limits: it applies only to remainder damages, never against the value of the land actually taken, and the condemnor cannot recover from you if enhancement exceeds damages. But the same road that creates the development potential also generates the offset, which is exactly why this argument needs an appraiser rather than optimism.
Cost-to-cure items, including relocated signs and repaired access, belong in the claim and are routinely underestimated in the state’s first appraisal. See common deficiencies in eminent domain appraisals. Tenants hold compensable interests too. See tenant and leaseholder compensation.
Under section 73.071(5), a change in value occurring after the project’s scope becomes known in the market, resulting solely from knowledge of the project location, is excluded in arriving at the value of the property acquired. The statute presumes the scope is known once the condemnor executes a resolution depicting the project location.
Do Marion County Businesses Get Paid for Lost Income?
Yes, and Florida is one of very few states that pays it. Section 73.071(3)(b) requires all four of these, and the claim must also be preserved on time:
- The taking is partial, not the whole parcel.
- The condemnor is FDOT, a county, a municipality, a board, a district, or another public body, acquiring a right of way.
- The business has more than five years’ standing for takings on or after January 1, 2005.
- The business is owned by the party whose land is taken and sits on adjoining land that party owns or holds.
The deadline is what actually kills these claims. Under section 73.015(2)(c), a qualifying business must submit a good faith written business damage offer, supported by business records and prepared by the owner, a CPA, or a business damage expert familiar with the operations of the business, by certified mail within 180 days after receiving the statutory notice or after the notice is returned undeliverable, or by a later date the parties agree to. Absent a showing of good faith justification, the court must strike the claim. If you do make that showing, the court must grant up to 180 more days.
Marion County is full of operations that qualify: the dealerships and distributors that chose I-75 frontage on purpose, and the equestrian businesses along SR 40 and NW 80th Avenue. Our series covers the framework: an introduction, calculating and proving, and resolving business damage claims.
Who Pays Your Attorney?
The condemning authority does, and it does not require a lawsuit. Under section 73.091(1) the petitioner pays your attorney’s fees as provided in section 73.092, and under section 73.015(4) an owner who settles presuit in lieu of condemnation also recovers fees, calculated under section 73.092(1) unless the parties agree otherwise, and recovers costs after submitting the appraisals, business damage reports, and other work product claimed and upon closing, payment, or final judgment.
Under section 73.092(1)(c), and except as otherwise provided in that section and in section 73.015, fees are awarded on the benefit achieved: 33 percent of any benefit up to $250,000, plus 25 percent between $250,000 and $1 million, plus 20 percent above $1 million. Section 73.092(1)(a) defines that benefit as the difference, exclusive of interest, between the final judgment or settlement and the last written offer made before you hired an attorney.
Two qualifications matter, and both turn on details owners rarely track.
Business damages are measured differently, and only if you produced records. Under section 73.092(1)(a)1., where ordinary-course business records were provided to substantiate the section 73.015(2)(c) offer, the benefit on business damages runs from the authority’s written counteroffer under section 73.015(2)(d), and under that subsection a rejection or non-response is deemed a counteroffer of zero. Where those records were not provided and are later deemed material, section 73.092(1)(a)2. measures the benefit from the first counteroffer made within 90 days after the authority receives them.
The percentage schedule does not govern everything. Section 73.092(2) applies a different multi-factor test to fees for defeating an order of taking, for apportionment, or for other supplemental proceedings, when not otherwise provided for.
Because the baseline is the last written offer made before you retain counsel, every additional offer you field alone raises that baseline, shrinking the statutory benefit your fee award is calculated from. See attorney fee recovery in Florida eminent domain and how early legal action can limit a taking.
Marion County condemnation actions are filed in circuit civil court in the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which sits in Ocala and also covers Citrus, Hernando, Lake, and Sumter counties. If the government damages your property without filing anything, see inverse condemnation claims.
What Should You Do in the First 30 Days?
- Do not accept, sign, or verbally agree to anything. Not the offer, not the easement, not the survey permission form.
- Ask which project number and which phase affects your parcel. On I-75 in particular, that answer determines whether your acquisition is finished or ahead of you.
- Request the appraisal and the plans. Under section 73.015(1)(a), the authority must produce the appraisal within 15 business days of your request, plus right-of-way maps and construction plans to the extent they have been prepared, with additional plan sheets within 15 days.
- Calendar the 180-day business damage deadline the day the notice arrives, if you operate a business on the property. Nothing else on this list is capable of extinguishing a claim outright.
- Document the property before crews arrive. Dated photos of access, parking, signage, wells, fences, and drainage are the cheapest evidence you will ever gather.
- Pull five years of business financials, and check your lease and your loan.
- Call counsel before the window closes. See what landowners need to know before accepting an offer and advanced negotiation strategies.
Quick take compresses all of it, since FDOT can seek possession before valuation is resolved. See the quick-take process and how to read an order of taking. Temporary construction easements multiply throughout a build. See navigating them and maximizing compensation.
Why Marion County Owners Choose Jimerson Birr
Jimerson Birr is the Florida firm business owners call when the state, a county, a city, or a utility wants their land. We have built Florida’s deepest project-level eminent domain library, corridor by corridor, because a landowner should walk into the first meeting knowing more about the project than the agent across the table.
Our practice sits inside a full-service business law firm, which matters when a taking hits a leased building, a development pipeline, and a loan covenant at once. We pair eminent domain and condemnation counsel with real estate development and land use and zoning representation. See also what I-75 widening means for Sumter and Marion owners and what just compensation covers.
FDOT says SR 40 owners will hear from it directly beginning late 2026. Owners who understand the program before the letter arrives do better than owners who react to it.
Contact Jimerson Birr for a case assessment, or start with our Florida eminent domain attorneys page.