By Farrar                                              H.B. No. 742
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the sale or exchange of land by a home-rule municipality.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 272.001(b), Local Government Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (b)  The notice and bidding requirements of Subsection (a) do
    1-7  not apply to the types of land and real property interests
    1-8  described by this subsection and owned by a political subdivision.
    1-9  That land and those interests may not be conveyed, sold, or
   1-10  exchanged for less than the fair market value of the land or
   1-11  interest.  The fair market value is determined by an appraisal
   1-12  obtained by the political subdivision that owns the land or
   1-13  interest or, in the case of land or an interest owned by a
   1-14  home-rule municipality, the fair market value may be determined by
   1-15  the price obtained by the municipality at a public auction for
   1-16  which notice to the general public is published in the manner
   1-17  described by Subsection (a).  The notice of the auction must
   1-18  include, instead of the content required by Subsection (a), a
   1-19  description of the land, including its location, the date, time,
   1-20  and location of the auction, and the procedures to be followed at
   1-21  the auction.   The appraisal or public auction price is conclusive
   1-22  of the fair market value of the land or interest, regardless of any
   1-23  contrary provision of a home-rule charter.   This subsection
    2-1  applies to:
    2-2              (1)  narrow strips of land, or land that because of its
    2-3  shape or small area cannot be used independently under its current
    2-4  zoning or under applicable subdivision or other development control
    2-5  ordinances;
    2-6              (2)  streets or alleys, owned in fee or used by
    2-7  easement;
    2-8              (3)  an easement for which one or more abutting
    2-9  property owners own the underlying fee simple;
   2-10              (4)  land or a real property interest originally
   2-11  acquired for streets, rights-of-way, or easements that the
   2-12  political subdivision chooses to exchange for other land to be used
   2-13  for streets, rights-of-way, or easements, including transactions
   2-14  partly for cash;
   2-15              (5)  land that the political subdivision wants to have
   2-16  developed by contract with an independent foundation;
   2-17              (6)  a real property interest conveyed to a
   2-18  governmental entity that has the power of eminent domain; <or>
   2-19              (7)  a municipality's land that is located in a
   2-20  reinvestment zone designated as provided by law and that the
   2-21  municipality desires to have developed under a project plan adopted
   2-22  by the municipality for the zone<.> ; or
   2-23              (8)  land that the political subdivision has acquired
   2-24  pursuant to foreclosure of a tax lien if the sale of the property
   2-25  is made to a charitable organization that is exempt from taxation
    3-1  under Section 11.181, Tax Code.
    3-2        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-7  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-8  passage, and it is so enacted.