By:  Whitmire                                          S.B. No. 114
       73R1512 SHS-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to municipal authority over substandard hazardous
    1-3  buildings.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 214.001, Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsections (h)-(n) to read as follows:
    1-7        (h)  In conducting a hearing authorized under this section,
    1-8  the municipality shall comply with the principles established in
    1-9  Subsections (i)-(n) in establishing a reasonable time for an owner
   1-10  or lienholder to perform the work required to secure, repair,
   1-11  remove, or demolish the building.
   1-12        (i)  A municipality  may not allow the owner or lienholder
   1-13  more than 30 days to:
   1-14              (1)  secure the building; or
   1-15              (2)  repair, remove, or demolish the building, unless
   1-16  the owner or lienholder establishes at the hearing that the work
   1-17  cannot reasonably be performed within 30 days.
   1-18        (j)  If the municipality allows the owner or lienholder more
   1-19  than 30 days to repair, remove, or demolish the building, the
   1-20  municipality shall establish specific time schedules for the
   1-21  commencement and performance of the work and shall require the
   1-22  owner or lienholder to secure the property in a reasonable manner
   1-23  from unauthorized entry while the work is being performed, as
   1-24  determined by the hearing official.
    2-1        (k)  A municipality may not allow the owner or lienholder
    2-2  more than 90 days to repair, remove, or demolish the building or
    2-3  fully perform all work required to comply with the order unless the
    2-4  owner or lienholder:
    2-5              (1)  submits a detailed plan and time schedule for the
    2-6  work at the hearing; and
    2-7              (2)  establishes at the hearing that the work cannot
    2-8  reasonably be completed within 90 days because of the scope and
    2-9  complexity of the work.
   2-10        (l)  If the municipality allows the owner or lienholder more
   2-11  than 90 days to complete any part of the work required to repair,
   2-12  remove, or demolish the building, the municipality shall require
   2-13  the owner or lienholder to regularly submit progress reports to the
   2-14  hearing official or the official's designee to demonstrate that the
   2-15  owner or lienholder has complied with time schedules established
   2-16  for commencement and performance of the work.  The order may
   2-17  require that the owner or lienholder appear before the hearing
   2-18  official or the designee to demonstrate compliance with the time
   2-19  schedules.
   2-20        (m)  In a public hearing to determine whether a building
   2-21  complies with the standards set out in an ordinance adopted under
   2-22  this section, the owner or lienholder has the burden of proof to
   2-23  demonstrate the scope of work required to be performed under the
   2-24  ordinance and the time it will take to reasonably perform the work.
   2-25        (n)  A notice of a hearing sent to an owner or lienholder
   2-26  under this section must include a provision that reminds the owner
   2-27  or lienholder that the owner or lienholder must submit at the
    3-1  hearing proof of the scope of the work required to be performed
    3-2  under the ordinance and the time it will take to reasonably perform
    3-3  the work.
    3-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-10  passage, and it is so enacted.