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House Bill 1949 |
House Author: Springer et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-15 |
Senate Sponsor: Taylor, Van |
Current law provides that a municipality may annex certain sparsely occupied areas, on petition of area landowners, if the area is of a certain width and if the area is contiguous to the annexing municipality. House Bill 1949 amends the Local Government Code to authorize the annexation of those sparsely occupied areas that are not contiguous to the annexing municipality on the condition that a municipally designated public right-of-way exists that is located entirely in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality and, when added to the area, would cause the area to be contiguous to the municipality. The bill includes the public right-of-way that makes the area eligible for annexation in the annexation to the municipality without regard to whether the owners of the public right-of-way sought annexation.
Previous law required a municipality that proposes to annex any portion of a paved county road to also annex the entire width of a county road and the adjacent right-of-way. The bill revises that requirement to make it applicable regardless of whether the road is paved and to also make it applicable to a proposal to annex any territory that abuts a county road. The bill clarifies that the annexation is required for the adjacent right-of-way on both sides of the county road and further clarifies that, if the annexed road is a gravel road, the county retains control of granting access to the road and its right-of-way from property that is not located in the boundaries of the annexing municipality and that is adjacent to the road and right-of-way.