US 231 Widening in Panama City: What FDOT Must Pay When It Takes Part of Your Property

The US 231 widening in Panama City has reached the phase that decides what you get paid: FDOT is buying land along the corridor now. FDOT plans to take US 231 (also signed as SR 75) from four lanes to as many as six between US 98 and SR 20, with funded segments running north from 15th Street past 23rd Street and Pipeline Road, plus flyover ramps at US 98. If your property, parking, or driveway sits inside those plans, Florida law entitles you to full compensation, a broader standard than the appraised value of the dirt.

Is It Too Late to Protect Your Property on US 231?

Not for most owners. FDOT has already closed on some parcels in the southern segment, but the widening is still in the right-of-way phase, so compensation on most parcels has not been fixed. FDOT said in June 2026 that it is purchasing properties along 15th Street to 23rd Street and Pipeline Road, and that negotiations with owners are expected to continue through 2030 (WJHG, June 18, 2026).

Owners who engage now have time to test the appraisal, document business losses, and negotiate design details such as driveway location and grade. Owners who wait until a lawsuit is served lose that room.

One caution: the same corridor carries smaller resurfacing and intersection projects, several already in construction while the widening segments are not. A letter about a turn lane is not a letter about the six-lane widening. Our roundup of major FDOT projects in North Florida separates them, and our guide to reading an FDOT eminent domain notice covers the paperwork.

What Does Full Compensation Cover in a Florida Partial Taking?

Full compensation covers the value of what the state takes plus the damage the taking does to what you keep. Florida’s constitution allows no taking except for a public purpose and with full compensation “paid to each owner or secured by deposit in the registry of the court and available to the owner” (Fla. Const. art. X, § 6). The condemnation statute then lists the elements a jury may award (Fla. Stat. § 73.071).

The Land and Improvements FDOT Takes

The first element is the value of what is appropriated, measured at highest and best use rather than current use. On a commercial strip like US 231, the taken area is rarely just soil:

• Paving, curbing, and striped parking spaces
• Pole signs, monument signs, and lighting
• Landscaping, irrigation, fencing, and walls
• Wells, septic components, and drainage structures

Widenings also generate temporary construction easements that expire when the contractor leaves, and those are compensable on their own terms.

Severance Damages to the Property You Keep

Where less than the entire parcel is taken, section 73.071 allows damages to the remainder caused by the taking. Remainder damages can exceed the value of the strip acquired, so that analysis deserves as much attention as the land itself. Typical drivers along US 231 include lost parking count, a driveway moved or narrowed, a median that converts full access into right-in and right-out, a changed grade between new pavement and your slab, and setback problems on the remaining site.

Cure costs belong here too: if restriping or regrading restores function for less than the value lost, that cure is part of the claim. The statute cuts both ways, because section 73.071(4) offsets any project-caused enhancement in the value of your remaining adjoining property against remainder damages. See our post on just compensation in Florida eminent domain cases and our Krome Avenue widening analysis.

Jimerson Birr represents Florida property and business owners in condemnation matters brought by the state, counties, municipalities, and utilities. We research corridor projects at the work program item level and publish what we find, so you walk into the first meeting knowing how your project is funded and scheduled. Reach our Florida eminent domain attorneys before you respond to an FDOT offer.

Business Damages for an Established Business

Florida allows business damages in some partial takings, and section 73.071(3)(b) sets conditions that are easy to trip over:

• The condemnor must be FDOT, a county, municipality, board, district, or other public body
• The taking must be partial and for a right-of-way
• The business must have more than five years’ standing for takings on or after January 1, 2005
• The business must be owned by the party whose land is taken, and located on adjoining land owned or held by that party

FDOT’s US 231 acquisitions satisfy the public body condition; a private utility easement would not. The ownership condition is where corridor businesses lose claims: a tenant on leased ground and the fee-owning landlord do not stand in the same position. Our series runs from an introduction to business damages to proving them and resolving the claim, and tenants should read what is available to leaseholders in a taking.

What Must FDOT Do Before It Sues You?

FDOT must negotiate in good faith and make a written offer before filing suit, and you get at least 30 days to respond (Fla. Stat. § 73.015). On request, it must furnish its appraisal within 15 business days, plus right-of-way maps and construction plans depicting the taking, to the extent those have been prepared. The notice must also describe the project and inform you of your rights to attorney’s fees and costs.

Our walkthrough of the eminent domain process for commercial owners orders the steps, and eminent domain versus condemnation decodes FDOT’s vocabulary.

The 180-Day Deadline That Ends Business Damage Claims

If you intend to claim business damages, section 73.015 gives you 180 days from receipt of FDOT’s notice to submit a good faith written offer supported by business records. Absent a showing of good faith justification for missing that window, the court must strike the business damage claim. FDOT then has 120 days to accept, reject, or counter by certified mail. Calendar both dates the day the notice arrives, and review the mistakes business owners make first.

Who Pays Your Attorney and Experts?

In Florida condemnation, the condemning authority pays. Fees are calculated on the benefit counsel achieves: 33 percent of any benefit up to $250,000, 25 percent of the portion between $250,000 and $1 million, and 20 percent above $1 million (Fla. Stat. § 73.092). “Benefit” is the difference, excluding interest, between the final judgment or settlement and the last written offer FDOT made before you hired an attorney, or the first offer afterward if none came first.

Two limits matter. On a business damage claim, the baseline shifts to FDOT’s counteroffer once you supply the business records the statute requires. And the percentage schedule covers fees earned on benefits, so fees for defeating an order of taking, for apportionment, and for other supplemental proceedings run on a different multi-factor analysis. Recoverable costs include appraisal fees and, where business damages are compensable, an accountant’s fee, limited to the circuit court proceeding.

Florida’s fee and cost statutes shift much of the expense of defending a condemnation case onto the condemning authority. If your parcel is inside the US 231 corridor, talk to our eminent domain and condemnation team about how those statutes apply to your file.

What Happens If You and FDOT Cannot Agree?

FDOT can obtain an order of taking and deposit its good faith estimate of value, at which point title vests in the state and the court sets the date you surrender possession. A jury still decides the final number later. Handle the deposit carefully: if you withdraw it and the jury awards less, the court enters judgment against you for the excess, so it is an estimate rather than a guaranteed floor. Owners on the Suncoast Parkway Extension and in Marion County faced the same sequence.

How Should Panama City Owners Handle FDOT’s First Offer?

Treat the first offer as an opening position and protect the record:

1. Request the appraisal, right-of-way maps, and construction plans in writing.
2. Photograph the property before survey stakes or clearing appear.
3. Count what is lost: parking spaces, signs, truck turning radius, drive-through stacking.
4. Pull the five years of business records the statute lists if a business operates on the parcel.
5. Do not sign a deed, easement, or release to “keep things moving.”
6. Get counsel involved before you respond, not after.

FDOT also administers relocation assistance for displaced residents and businesses, including moving expenses and business reestablishment payments. Those benefits run separately from the purchase price for your land, and accepting relocation help does not settle what you are owed for the property.

Talk to a Florida Eminent Domain Lawyer About Your US 231 Parcel

Jimerson Birr represents property and business owners in condemnation matters brought by FDOT and local governments. We handle valuation disputes, severance and cure damages, business damage claims, apportionment between landlords and tenants, and fee and cost recovery, including for owners in the real estate development and construction industry and parties to a commercial lease that must be read alongside a taking.

Start with our eminent domain law FAQs, then contact Jimerson Birr to review your parcel while the US 231 corridor is still being assembled.