H.B. No. 496
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to platting requirements for certain municipalities.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 212.004(a), Local Government Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  The owner of a tract of land located within the limits
    1-7  or in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality who
    1-8  divides the tract in two or more parts to lay out a subdivision of
    1-9  the tract, including an addition to a municipality, <or> to lay out
   1-10  suburban, building, or other lots, or <and> to lay out streets,
   1-11  alleys, squares, parks, or other parts of the tract intended to be
   1-12  dedicated to public use or for the use of purchasers or owners of
   1-13  lots fronting on or adjacent to the streets, alleys, squares,
   1-14  parks, or other parts must have a plat of the subdivision prepared.
   1-15  A division of a tract under this subsection includes a division
   1-16  regardless of whether it is made by using a metes and bounds
   1-17  description in a deed of conveyance or in a contract for a deed, by
   1-18  using a contract of sale or other executory contract to convey, or
   1-19  by using any other method.  A division of land under this
   1-20  subsection does not include a division of land into parts greater
   1-21  than five acres, where each part has access and no public
   1-22  improvement is being dedicated.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  Section 212.005, Local Government Code, is
    2-1  amended to read as follows:
    2-2        Sec. 212.005.  APPROVAL BY MUNICIPALITY REQUIRED.  The
    2-3  municipal authority responsible for approving plats must approve a
    2-4  plat or replat that is required to be prepared under this
    2-5  subchapter and that satisfies all applicable regulations.
    2-6        SECTION 3.  Sections 212.015(b) and (c), Local Government
    2-7  Code, are amended to read as follows:
    2-8        (b)  Notice of the hearing required under Section 212.014
    2-9  shall be given before the 15th day before the date of the hearing
   2-10  by:
   2-11              (1)  publication in an official newspaper or a
   2-12  newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the
   2-13  municipality is located; and
   2-14              (2)  by written notice, with a copy of Subsection (c)
   2-15  attached, forwarded by the municipal authority responsible for
   2-16  approving plats to the owners of lots that are <property> in the
   2-17  original subdivision and that are within 200 feet of the lots to be
   2-18  replatted, as indicated on the most recently approved municipal tax
   2-19  roll or in the case of a subdivision within the extraterritorial
   2-20  jurisdiction, the most recently approved county tax roll <within
   2-21  200 feet> of the property upon which the replat is requested.  The
   2-22  written notice may be delivered by depositing the notice, properly
   2-23  addressed with postage prepaid, in a post office or postal
   2-24  depository within the boundaries of the municipality.
   2-25        (c)  If the proposed replat requires a variance and is
    3-1  protested in accordance with this subsection, the proposed replat
    3-2  must receive, in order to be approved, the affirmative vote of at
    3-3  least three-fourths of the <all> members present of the municipal
    3-4  planning commission or governing body, or both.  For a legal
    3-5  protest, written instruments signed by the owners of at least 20
    3-6  percent of the area of the lots or land immediately adjoining the
    3-7  area covered by the proposed replat and extending 200 feet from
    3-8  that area, but within the original subdivision, must be filed with
    3-9  the municipal planning commission or governing body, or both, prior
   3-10  to the close of the public hearing.
   3-11        SECTION 4.  Section 212.041, Local Government Code, is
   3-12  amended to read as follows:
   3-13        Sec. 212.041.  MUNICIPALITY COVERED BY SUBCHAPTER.  This
   3-14  subchapter applies only to a <an unzoned> municipality <with a
   3-15  population of more than 1.5 million> whose governing body chooses
   3-16  by ordinance to be covered by this subchapter or chose by ordinance
   3-17  to be covered by the law codified by this subchapter.
   3-18        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-24  passage, and it is so enacted.