§427. Initial application for lease

A. Any person who qualifies under this Subpart and who desires to lease a part of the bottom or bed of any of the waters of this state as provided in this Subpart shall present to the secretary a written application, and pay an application fee set by the commission. This application shall contain the name and address of the applicant and a reasonably definite description of the location and amount of land covered by water desired by the applicant. The applicant shall ask that the application be registered and that the water bottom described be leased to the applicant under the provisions of this Subpart. The department shall then register the application, shall order an examination to determine whether the water bottoms applied for are leasable, and shall determine the basis upon which the rental of the lease shall be fixed. If the area is found to be leasable, the applicant shall submit to the department a survey of the area for which the application was submitted. Such survey shall have been conducted in accordance with the standards required by the department. The application shall remain in effect and valid until such time as the survey is complete. If the application is favorably acted upon, the secretary may, at his option, execute a lease for the water bottoms to the applicant as soon as the survey has been made, and the plan or map thereof has been filed with the department.

B. When applications are made by two or more persons for the same water bottoms, the applicant or the heirs or transferors of a deceased applicant who files the first application has prior claim. The department shall not accept any survey plan for any lease that exceeds by ten percent the acreage described in the initial application for the particular lease from the date of adoption of this Subsection, except that the department may accept any lease application, even where the survey plan exceeds by ten percent the acreage described in the initial application, if the lease would not overlap or impact surrounding leases or pending lease applications.

C. The department shall require that the bottoms of water areas to be leased be as compact as possible, taking into consideration such factors as the shape of the body of water, and the condition of the bottom as to hardness or softness which would render it desirable or undesirable for the purpose of oyster cultivation.

D. The provisions of this Section shall apply only to the initial application for an oyster lease, and not to the renewal of a lease.

E. No application for a new lease shall be submitted nor accepted for more than one thousand acres.

F. The secretary may not execute a lease until the department has posted notice of the application for the lease on its website for ninety consecutive days.

(1) Any person claiming ownership of the water bottoms to be leased may protest the issuance of the lease on the grounds that the protesting party owns the water bottoms, but only by delivering via certified mail notice of the protest in writing to the secretary, the administrator of the state land office, and the lease applicant on or before the ninetieth day after notice of the application was posted. The notice of protest shall include all information and documentation that the protesting party believes is relevant to the question of ownership. The right to protest issuance of the lease pursuant to this Subsection shall expire if a protest is not made on or before the ninetieth day after notice of the application was posted.

(2) If a protest is timely made, the administrator of the state land office shall review the state’s claim to ownership of the contested water bottoms and issue a preliminary determination to the secretary, the protesting party, and the lease applicant within ninety days of receiving the notice of protest, as to whether the state claims ownership of the contested water bottoms. The administrator shall issue a final written determination as to whether the state claims ownership of the water bottom within one hundred eighty days of receiving the notice of protest. If a protest is timely made, the secretary may execute the lease as otherwise authorized under this Subpart only to the extent that the administrator of the state land office determines that the state claims ownership of the contested water bottoms. The relief available pursuant to and the results and effects of such a protest and determination are limited to those set forth in this Subsection. The determination by the administrator of the state land office shall not be reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act, and is appealable only to the Nineteenth Judicial District Court. Any petition for judicial review of the determination pursuant to this Subsection must be filed within sixty days after issuance of the determination. Failure to make a protest pursuant to this Subsection has no effect on the right to claim ownership of the leased water bottom authorized by R.S. 56:423(D) or the reasonable investigation into the ownership of the water bottom by the state required by R.S. 56:425(A).

(3) A lease applicant may withdraw a lease application and receive a full refund from the department of all application fees, by submitting a written request for withdrawal to the department within one hundred twenty days after the department posts notice of the application on its website, within thirty days after issuance of the determination of the administrator of the state land office regarding the state’s claim to ownership pursuant to a protest authorized by this Subsection, or within thirty days after final judgment in any proceeding for judicial review of the determination, whichever is the later date.

G. The secretary shall not lease any water bottom located within seventy-five feet of the centerline of a pipeline that is located on purchased right-of-way. However, if the right-of-way is abandoned and returned to commerce, the secretary may then lease such water bottom.

Acts 1981, No. 752, §1; Acts 1981, No. 925, §1. Amended by Acts 1982, No. 315, §1; Acts 1990, No. 889, §1, eff. July 25, 1990; Acts 1997, No. 1048, §1; Acts 2003, No. 449, §1; Acts 2010, No. 392, §1; Acts 2016, No. 595,§1, eff. July 1, 2016.

NOTE: See Act 595 of the 2016 Regular Session, §2, for details of moratorium lifting procedure.