Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1457 amends provisions of the Natural Resources Code relating to the attorney general's authority to enforce the law governing access to public beaches. The bill authorizes the commissioner of the General Land Office to issue an order suspending for two years the submission of a request that the attorney general file suit to obtain a court order to remove a house from a public beach if the commissioner, in consultation with the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas, makes certain determinations relating to the property. The bill requires an order to be posted on the land office's Internet website, published in the Texas Register, and filed in the real property records of the county in which the house is located and notice of the order to be provided to the attorney general and local prosecuting attorneys. The bill authorizes a local government to issue a certificate or permit authorizing repair, under certain conditions, of a house subject to the order and to allow utilities to be reconnected to the house. The bill specifies that an order does not create a private cause of action, is exempt from certain private property law, and suspends a limitations period established by statute or common law. The bill requires a subdivision of this state, other than a county or municipality, to act in partnership with a county or municipality in erecting a lawful beach structure. The bill removes the attorney general's participation in several activities related to beach access. Finally, the bill amends the law to provide that the attorney general may file suit, only at the request of the commissioner, to prohibit and remedy any violation of beach access and to collect damages to injured natural resources and to recover civil penalties.