By Alexander                                          H.B. No. 2585
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the preservation of property rights; and declaring an
    1-3  emergency.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 21.042, Property Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 21.042.  Assessment of Damages
    1-8        (b)  If a part of or an entire tract or parcel of real
    1-9  property is condemned, the damage to the property owner is the
   1-10  local market value of the property at the time of the special
   1-11  commissioners' hearing or the property owner may elect to establish
   1-12  an earlier date of valuation and taking by proving (i) that the
   1-13  condemning authority manifested publicly the intention to take the
   1-14  property at such earlier date; (ii) that the market value of the
   1-15  landowner's property at that time was higher than the date of
   1-16  valuation used by the condemnor; and (iii) that said public
   1-17  manifestation by the condemning authority adversely affected the
   1-18  value of the real property in question.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY CLAUSE.  The importance of this
   1-21  legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both
   1-22  houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that
   1-23  the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.