By:  Delco                                             H.B. No. 260
       73R2198 DWS-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to municipal regulation of the public consumption or
    1-3  possession of alcoholic beverages.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 109, Alcoholic Beverage
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 109.34 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 109.34.  MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF OPEN CONTAINERS.  (a)
    1-8  To promote public health and safety, the governing body of a
    1-9  municipality by ordinance may prohibit the consumption of an
   1-10  alcoholic beverage or the possession of an alcoholic beverage in an
   1-11  open container:
   1-12              (1)  in a municipal park; or
   1-13              (2)  on public property in a designated district.
   1-14        (b)  The governing body may designate one or more districts
   1-15  for the purposes of Subsection (a) of this section.  The combined
   1-16  area of the districts may not be greater than an area equal to two
   1-17  percent of the total area within the municipal boundaries.
   1-18        (c)  The municipality shall post readable, clearly visible
   1-19  signs in each designated district that:
   1-20              (1)  state the prohibitions that apply in the district
   1-21  and the corresponding penalties; and
   1-22              (2)  state that the area is in a designated district
   1-23  and that the prohibitions apply only in a designated district.
   1-24        (d)  The signs required under Subsection (c) of this section
    2-1  must be posted on each street, sidewalk, or alley and along the
    2-2  boundaries of any other public property in the district at
    2-3  intervals not greater than 50 feet.
    2-4        (e)  An ordinance enacted under this section does not apply
    2-5  to premises licensed for on-premise consumption.
    2-6        (f)  An ordinance enacted under this section may include an
    2-7  exemption for special events, including festivals, authorized by
    2-8  the governing body.
    2-9        (g)  In this section, "public property" means any area,
   2-10  facility, or land that the municipality owns or controls or in
   2-11  which the municipality has an easement, including a public sidewalk
   2-12  or street.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-19  passage, and it is so enacted.