16 U.S.C. § 1277 — Land acquisition

(a) (1) The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture may each acquire land and interests in land within the authorized boundaries of a component of the national wild and scenic rivers system that is designated in section 1274 or later added by Congress, if that Secretary administers the component. Neither Secretary may acquire fee title to an average of more than 100 acres per mile on both sides of the river. State-owned land may be acquired only by donation or exchange under subsection (d). Land owned by an Indian tribe or a State political subdivision may not be acquired without its governing body’s consent while it follows a management and protection plan that the Secretary finds protects the land and assures uses consistent with this chapter. Money appropriated from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for Federal purposes is available to Federal departments and agencies to acquire property for this chapter, without limiting other appropriations. (2) If a tract is partly inside and partly outside a component’s boundaries, the appropriate Secretary may acquire the whole tract with the outside landowners’ consent. The outside portion does not count toward the 100-acre-per-mile fee-title limit. It must be sold, leased, or exchanged under existing legal authority. (b) If at least half of all acreage outside the ordinary high-water mark on both sides of a federally administered wild, scenic, or recreational river area is owned in fee by the United States, a State, or a State political subdivision, neither Secretary may use this chapter to condemn fee title to land. Condemnation is still allowed when needed to clear title, acquire scenic easements, or acquire other reasonably necessary easements for public access to the river and travel along all or selected parts of it. (c) Neither Secretary may condemn land inside an incorporated city, village, or borough to add it to a national wild, scenic, or recreational river area if a valid zoning ordinance applies to the land and conforms to this chapter. The appropriate Secretary must issue guidelines for local zoning standards consistent with this chapter. The guidelines must aim to (A) bar new commercial or industrial uses except those consistent with this chapter, and (B) protect riverbank land through acreage, frontage, and development setback requirements. (d) The appropriate Secretary may accept title to non-Federal property inside an authorized boundary and, in exchange, give the grantor federally owned property under that Secretary’s jurisdiction in the same State that the Secretary classifies as suitable for exchange or other disposal. The properties must have approximately equal value, or cash must equalize the difference as required by the circumstances. (e) The head of a Federal department or agency with administrative jurisdiction over land or interests inside an authorized boundary may transfer jurisdiction to the appropriate Secretary for administration under this chapter. Land acquired by or transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture for this chapter within or next to a national forest becomes national forest land. (f) The appropriate Secretary may accept donated land, interests in land, money, and other property for administering the national wild and scenic rivers system. (g) (1) An owner of “improved property” when it is acquired may reserve for the owner and successors or assigns a right to use and occupy it for noncommercial residential purposes. The reserved term may be a definite term of no more than 25 years, or may end when the owner dies, the owner’s spouse dies, or either or both die. The owner chooses the term. The appropriate Secretary must pay the property’s fair market value on the acquisition date minus the fair market value of the reserved right on that date. (2) The right may end if the Secretary has reasonable cause to find that its use conflicts with this chapter. The Secretary must offer the holder the fair market value of the unexpired part of the right, and the right ends by law when that price is offered. (3) “Improved property” means a detached, one-family dwelling whose construction began before January 1, 1967, unless another date is specifically provided for a river, together with the amount of same-owner land the Secretary designates as reasonably needed to enjoy the dwelling solely as a noncommercial residence, and accessory structures on that designated land.