1-1 By: Madden (Senate Sponsor - Ratliff) H.B. No. 200
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 10, 1995;
1-3 April 11, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Economic Development; May 16, 1995, reported adversely, with
1-5 favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays
1-6 0; May 16, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-7 COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 200 By: Shapiro
1-8 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-9 AN ACT
1-10 relating to professional surveying.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Section 2(1), Professional Land Surveying
1-13 Practices Act (Article 5282c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
1-14 amended to read as follows:
1-15 (1) "Professional surveying" means the practice <for
1-16 compensation> of land, boundary, or property surveying or other
1-17 similar professional practices. The term includes any service or
1-18 work the adequate performance of which involves the application of
1-19 special knowledge of the principles of geodesy, mathematics,
1-20 related applied and physical sciences, and relevant laws to the
1-21 measurement and location of sites, points, lines, angles,
1-22 elevations, natural features, and existing man-made works in the
1-23 air, on the surface of the earth, within underground workings,<;>
1-24 and<,> on the beds of bodies of water for<,> the purpose of
1-25 determining <determination of> areas and volumes<,> for:
1-26 (A) the location of real property boundaries;
1-27 (B) the platting and layout of lands and
1-28 subdivisions of land; and
1-29 (C) the preparation and perpetuation of maps,
1-30 record plats, field note records, easements, and real property
1-31 descriptions that represent those surveys.
1-32 SECTION 2. Section 3A, Professional Land Surveying Practices
1-33 Act (Article 5282c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to
1-34 read as follows:
1-35 Sec. 3A. This Act does not require the use of a registered
1-36 land surveyor to establish an easement or a construction estimate
1-37 which does not involve the monumentation, delineation, or
1-38 preparation of a metes and bounds description.
1-39 SECTION 3. Section 15, Professional Land Surveying Practices
1-40 Act (Article 5282c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
1-41 amending Subsections (c) and (e) and by adding Subsection (d) to
1-42 read as follows:
1-43 (c) An applicant who applies for registration as a
1-44 registered professional land surveyor on or before January 1, 2003,
1-45 must:
1-46 (1) hold a valid certificate as a
1-47 surveyor-in-training; and
1-48 (2) have at least two years of experience as a
1-49 surveyor-in-training of a character satisfactory to the board in
1-50 the performance of surveying in delegated responsible charge as a
1-51 subordinate to a surveyor registered or licensed to engage in the
1-52 practice of surveying in this state or another state whose
1-53 requirements for registration or licensure are equivalent to those
1-54 of this state.
1-55 (d) In addition to compliance with the requirements imposed
1-56 under Subsection (c) of this section, an applicant who applies for
1-57 registration as a registered professional land surveyor after
1-58 January 1, 2003, must hold an earned bachelor's degree conferred by
1-59 an accredited institution of higher education and including at
1-60 least 32 semester hours of study, in any combination of courses
1-61 acceptable to the board, in civil engineering, land surveying,
1-62 mathematics, photogrammetry, forestry, land law, or the physical
1-63 sciences.
1-64 (e) An applicant who applies for certification as a
1-65 surveyor-in-training must:
1-66 (1) have an earned bachelor of science degree in
1-67 surveying conferred by an accredited institution of higher
1-68 education;
2-1 (2) have an earned bachelor's <bachelor of science>
2-2 degree <in another course of study,> conferred by an accredited
2-3 institution of higher education and including at least 32 semester
2-4 hours, in any combination of courses acceptable to the board, in
2-5 civil engineering, land surveying, mathematics, photogrammetry,
2-6 forestry, land law, or the physical sciences, and have at least one
2-7 year of experience acceptable to the board in delegated responsible
2-8 charge as a subordinate to a registered professional land surveyor
2-9 actively engaged in the practice of professional land surveying;
2-10 (3) have an earned associate degree in surveying
2-11 conferred by an accredited institution of higher education and have
2-12 at least two years of experience acceptable to the board in
2-13 delegated responsible charge as a subordinate to a registered
2-14 professional land surveyor actively engaged in the practice of
2-15 professional land surveying;
2-16 (4) have successfully completed a course of
2-17 instruction composed of 32 semester hours in land surveying or the
2-18 equivalent number of semester hours in board-approved courses
2-19 related to surveying and have at least two years of experience
2-20 acceptable to the board in delegated responsible charge as a
2-21 subordinate to a registered professional land surveyor actively
2-22 engaged in the practice of professional land surveying; or
2-23 (5) have graduated from an accredited high school,
2-24 have at least four years of experience acceptable to the board in
2-25 delegated responsible charge as a subordinate to a registered
2-26 professional land surveyor actively engaged in the practice of
2-27 professional land surveying, and present evidence satisfactory to
2-28 the board that the applicant is self-educated in professional land
2-29 surveying.
2-30 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
2-31 applies to conduct that constitutes professional surveying that
2-32 occurs on or after that date. Conduct that occurred before that
2-33 date is governed by the law in effect on the date that the conduct
2-34 occurred, and the former law is continued in effect for that
2-35 purpose.
2-36 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
2-37 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-38 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-39 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-40 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
2-41 * * * * *