H.B. No. 200
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to professional surveying.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 2(1), Professional Land Surveying
1-5 Practices Act (Article 5282c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (1) "Professional surveying" means the practice <for
1-8 compensation> of land, boundary, or property surveying or other
1-9 similar professional practices. The term includes any service or
1-10 work the adequate performance of which involves the application of
1-11 special knowledge of the principles of geodesy, mathematics,
1-12 related applied and physical sciences, and relevant laws to the
1-13 measurement and location of sites, points, lines, angles,
1-14 elevations, natural features, and existing man-made works in the
1-15 air, on the surface of the earth, within underground workings,<;>
1-16 and<,> on the beds of bodies of water for<,> the purpose of
1-17 determining <determination of> areas and volumes<,> for:
1-18 (A) the location of real property boundaries;
1-19 (B) the platting and layout of lands and
1-20 subdivisions of land; and
1-21 (C) the preparation and perpetuation of maps,
1-22 record plats, field note records, easements, and real property
1-23 descriptions that represent those surveys.
1-24 SECTION 2. Section 3A, Professional Land Surveying Practices
2-1 Act (Article 5282c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to
2-2 read as follows:
2-3 Sec. 3A. This Act does not require the use of a registered
2-4 land surveyor to establish an easement or a construction estimate
2-5 which does not involve the monumentation, delineation, or
2-6 preparation of a metes and bounds description.
2-7 SECTION 3. Section 15, Professional Land Surveying Practices
2-8 Act (Article 5282c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
2-9 amending Subsections (c) and (e) and by adding Subsection (d) to
2-10 read as follows:
2-11 (c) An applicant who applies for registration as a
2-12 registered professional land surveyor on or before January 1, 2003,
2-13 must:
2-14 (1) hold a valid certificate as a
2-15 surveyor-in-training; and
2-16 (2) have at least two years of experience as a
2-17 surveyor-in-training of a character satisfactory to the board in
2-18 the performance of surveying in delegated responsible charge as a
2-19 subordinate to a surveyor registered or licensed to engage in the
2-20 practice of surveying in this state or another state whose
2-21 requirements for registration or licensure are equivalent to those
2-22 of this state.
2-23 (d) In addition to compliance with the requirements imposed
2-24 under Subsection (c) of this section, an applicant who applies for
2-25 registration as a registered professional land surveyor after
2-26 January 1, 2003, must hold an earned bachelor's degree conferred by
2-27 an accredited institution of higher education and including at
3-1 least 32 semester hours of study, in any combination of courses
3-2 acceptable to the board, in civil engineering, land surveying,
3-3 mathematics, photogrammetry, forestry, land law, or the physical
3-4 sciences.
3-5 (e) An applicant who applies for certification as a
3-6 surveyor-in-training must:
3-7 (1) have an earned bachelor of science degree in
3-8 surveying conferred by an accredited institution of higher
3-9 education;
3-10 (2) have an earned bachelor's <bachelor of science>
3-11 degree <in another course of study,> conferred by an accredited
3-12 institution of higher education and including at least 32 semester
3-13 hours, in any combination of courses acceptable to the board, in
3-14 civil engineering, land surveying, mathematics, photogrammetry,
3-15 forestry, land law, or the physical sciences, and have at least one
3-16 year of experience acceptable to the board in delegated responsible
3-17 charge as a subordinate to a registered professional land surveyor
3-18 actively engaged in the practice of professional land surveying;
3-19 (3) have an earned associate degree in surveying
3-20 conferred by an accredited institution of higher education and have
3-21 at least two years of experience acceptable to the board in
3-22 delegated responsible charge as a subordinate to a registered
3-23 professional land surveyor actively engaged in the practice of
3-24 professional land surveying;
3-25 (4) have successfully completed a course of
3-26 instruction composed of 32 semester hours in land surveying or the
3-27 equivalent number of semester hours in board-approved courses
4-1 related to surveying and have at least two years of experience
4-2 acceptable to the board in delegated responsible charge as a
4-3 subordinate to a registered professional land surveyor actively
4-4 engaged in the practice of professional land surveying; or
4-5 (5) have graduated from an accredited high school,
4-6 have at least four years of experience acceptable to the board in
4-7 delegated responsible charge as a subordinate to a registered
4-8 professional land surveyor actively engaged in the practice of
4-9 professional land surveying, and present evidence satisfactory to
4-10 the board that the applicant is self-educated in professional land
4-11 surveying.
4-12 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
4-13 applies to conduct that constitutes professional surveying that
4-14 occurs on or after that date. Conduct that occurred before that
4-15 date is governed by the law in effect on the date that the conduct
4-16 occurred, and the former law is continued in effect for that
4-17 purpose.
4-18 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
4-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.