Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1148 adds a new subchapter to the Business & Commerce Code relating to wireless communication facilities. The bill requires that certain information regarding the proposed construction of a wireless communication facility that is taller than 100 feet be filed, 30 days before construction begins, with the county clerk or other county official designated by the commissioners court of the county. In addition, the bill requires that notice of the proposed construction be mailed to a public airport located within three miles of the proposed facility location, the Texas Department of Agriculture, and either each owner of land within two miles of the proposed facility, if the proposed location is not within a metropolitan statistical area, or a newspaper of general circulation in the county of construction. The bill sets out provisions relating to the transfer of ownership and the removal of a wireless communication facility and establishes a prohibition regarding the construction of a facility more than 15 feet in height in a certain specified location.

            House Bill 1148 requires the highest guy wires of an antenna structure to be marked in the manner generally used for antennae structures if the antenna structure is used to provide commercial wireless communication services and is located in a cultivated field or within 100 feet of a cultivated field.

            House Bill 1148 provides that the provisions of the subchapter do not preempt a local ordinance regulating a wireless communication facility and also provides for exceptions to the filing and notice requirements for certain entities.