1-1 By: Kuempel (Senate Sponsor - Brown) H.B. No. 2712
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 12, 1995;
1-3 May 16, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural
1-4 Resources; May 25, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:
1-5 Yeas 6, Nays 1; May 25, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to removing the authority of certain local governments to
1-9 participate directly in regional habitat conservation plans;
1-10 requiring the Parks and Wildlife Department to coordinate with
1-11 governmental entities affected by the plan and to submit the plan
1-12 to the legislature for review.
1-13 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-14 SECTION 1. Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
1-15 amended to read as follows:
1-16 Sec. 83.006. Regional Plans for Endangered Species
1-17 Protection. (a) The department <and any county or city within the
1-18 state> may participate in the study, preparation, and creation of a
1-19 regional habitat conservation plan, as specified by the United
1-20 States Fish and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22), to be
1-21 submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for
1-22 approval.
1-23 (b) Any regional plan designed to protect or manage an
1-24 "endangered species" as defined in 16 U.S.C. Section 1531 et seq.
1-25 must be developed in coordination with any other state agency or
1-26 local government that may be affected by the plan, including the
1-27 Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Texas Water
1-28 Development Board, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas
1-29 Department of Agriculture, General Land Office, Railroad Commission
1-30 of Texas, and Texas Department of Commerce. A plan developed under
1-31 this subsection must <shall> be submitted to the legislature <Parks
1-32 and Wildlife Department> for review and comment before it is
1-33 submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for
1-34 approval.
1-35 <(c) In order to protect threatened and endangered species
1-36 as defined in Section 3 of the federal Endangered Species Act of
1-37 1973 and in Chapter 68, Parks and Wildlife Code, a city, both
1-38 within its corporate limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction,
1-39 and a county may:>
1-40 <(1) participate in the development of a regional
1-41 habitat conservation plan as specified by the United States Fish
1-42 and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22) and may require
1-43 information on the presence of threatened or endangered species
1-44 from permit applicants wishing to initiate a project in a defined
1-45 suitable habitat;>
1-46 <(2) enforce a regional habitat conservation plan that
1-47 has been formally approved for a given species or multiple species
1-48 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, provided that a
1-49 city may not enforce outside its corporate limits any ordinance,
1-50 rule, or regulation designed to protect or manage an endangered
1-51 species unless the requirement imposed under the ordinance, rule,
1-52 or regulation is specifically prescribed by the regional habitat
1-53 conservation plan;>
1-54 <(3) allow credits, modifications, and waivers of
1-55 other regulations to offset problems caused by the protection of
1-56 threatened or endangered species; and>
1-57 <(4) purchase land or execute leases and easements to
1-58 protect the habitat of a threatened or endangered species.>
1-59 SECTION 2. This Act does not impair the validity of an
1-60 easement or lease executed under Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife
1-61 Code, before the effective date of this Act.
1-62 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-63 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-64 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-65 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-66 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-67 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-68 passage, and it is so enacted.
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