By Kuempel H.B. No. 2712
74R4107 PAM-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to removing the authority of certain local governments to
1-3 participate directly in regional habitat conservation plans;
1-4 requiring the Parks and Wildlife Department to coordinate with
1-5 governmental entities affected by the plan and to submit the plan
1-6 to the legislature for review.
1-7 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-8 SECTION 1. Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
1-9 amended to read as follows:
1-10 Sec. 83.006. Regional Plans for Endangered Species
1-11 Protection. (a) The department <and any county or city within the
1-12 state> may participate in the study, preparation, and creation of a
1-13 regional habitat conservation plan, as specified by the United
1-14 States Fish and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22), to be
1-15 submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for
1-16 approval.
1-17 (b) Any regional plan designed to protect or manage an
1-18 "endangered species" as defined in 16 U.S.C. Section 1531 et seq.
1-19 must be developed in coordination with any other state agency or
1-20 local government that may be affected by the plan, including the
1-21 Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Texas Water
1-22 Development Board, and Texas Department of Commerce. A plan
1-23 developed under this subsection must <shall> be submitted to the
1-24 legislature <Parks and Wildlife Department> for review and comment
2-1 before it is submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife
2-2 Service for approval.
2-3 <(c) In order to protect threatened and endangered species
2-4 as defined in Section 3 of the federal Endangered Species Act of
2-5 1973 and in Chapter 68, Parks and Wildlife Code, a city, both
2-6 within its corporate limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction,
2-7 and a county may:>
2-8 <(1) participate in the development of a regional
2-9 habitat conservation plan as specified by the United States Fish
2-10 and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22) and may require
2-11 information on the presence of threatened or endangered species
2-12 from permit applicants wishing to initiate a project in a defined
2-13 suitable habitat;>
2-14 <(2) enforce a regional habitat conservation plan that
2-15 has been formally approved for a given species or multiple species
2-16 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, provided that a
2-17 city may not enforce outside its corporate limits any ordinance,
2-18 rule, or regulation designed to protect or manage an endangered
2-19 species unless the requirement imposed under the ordinance, rule,
2-20 or regulation is specifically prescribed by the regional habitat
2-21 conservation plan;>
2-22 <(3) allow credits, modifications, and waivers of
2-23 other regulations to offset problems caused by the protection of
2-24 threatened or endangered species; and>
2-25 <(4) purchase land or execute leases and easements to
2-26 protect the habitat of a threatened or endangered species.>
2-27 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
3-1 SECTION 3. This Act does not impair the validity of an
3-2 easement or lease executed under Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife
3-3 Code, before the effective date of this Act.
3-4 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-5 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-6 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-7 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-8 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.