By Culberson/Eckels                                   H.B. No. 2671
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the sale or trade of a park under two acres that is no
    1-3  longer useable and functional as a park.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 253.001, Chapter 253, Local Government
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Subsection (f) to read as follows:
    1-7        (f)  The election requirements of Subsection (b) do not apply
    1-8  to a conveyance of a park if:
    1-9              (1)  the park is owned by a home-rule municipality with
   1-10  a population of more than one million;
   1-11              (2)  it is a park of two acres or less;
   1-12              (3)  the park is no longer useable and functional as a
   1-13  park;
   1-14              (4)  the proceeds of the sale will be used to acquire
   1-15  land for park purposes;
   1-16              (5)  a public hearing on the proposed conveyance is
   1-17  held by the governing body of the home-rule municipality, and that
   1-18  body finds that the property is no longer useable and functional as
   1-19  a park; and
   1-20              (6)  the park is conveyed pursuant to an ordinance
   1-21  adopted by the governing body of the home rule municipality, unless
   1-22  within sixty days from the date of the public hearing the governing
   1-23  body of the home rule municipality is presented with a petition
    2-1  opposing the conveyance which contains the name, address, and date
    2-2  of signature of no less than 1,500 registered voters residing
    2-3  within the city limits of the municipality; then, the governing
    2-4  body of the home rule municipality shall either deny the conveyance
    2-5  or shall approve the conveyance subject to the election required in
    2-6  Subsection (b); or
    2-7              (7)  the conveyance involves an exchange of two
    2-8  existing parks, situated within a home-rule municipality with a
    2-9  population of more than one million, that together total 1.5 acres
   2-10  or less in size; that are located within 1000 feet of each other;
   2-11  that are located in an industrial area; that have been found in a
   2-12  public hearing to no longer be usable and functional as parks, and
   2-13  that are conveyed pursuant to an ordinance, adopted by the
   2-14  governing body of that municipality, that has an effective date
   2-15  before December 1, 1993.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.