By Shields                                             H.B. No. 132
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the regulation by home-rule municipalities of streets,
    1-3  avenues, alleys, and boulevards.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  A home-rule municipality has the following
    1-6  powers:
    1-7              1.  To regulate and restrict access to streets,
    1-8  avenues, alleys, and boulevards in the municipality, including the
    1-9  erection of and maintenance of fences, gates, or other structures.
   1-10  The municipality may act alone or in conjunction with another
   1-11  entity or person.
   1-12              2.  Subject to the following provisions, a home-rule
   1-13  municipality shall grant permission for the property-owners of a
   1-14  street to erect and maintain fences, gates or other structures
   1-15  which control access to the street:
   1-16                    a.  Application shall be made in the form of a
   1-17  petition on which the majority of the property-owners of the street
   1-18  have expressed a desire that such a fence, gate, or other structure
   1-19  be erected.
   1-20                    b.  The cost of erecting and maintaining such
   1-21  structure shall be borne equally by all property-owners of the
   1-22  street.
   1-23                    c.  The fence, gate or other structure may not
    2-1  restrict access to the street by any vehicle between the hours of
    2-2  6:00 am and 9:00 pm.
    2-3                    d.  Provision shall be made for emergency
    2-4  vehicles or vehicles operated by a utility to access the street at
    2-5  all times.
    2-6                    e.  Erection of a fence, gate or other structure
    2-7  under the provisions of this Act shall not effect the
    2-8  municipality's ownership of the street, nor its obligation to
    2-9  maintain the street and any utilities located thereon.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and that this Act take effect and
   2-15  be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.