By Rosson                                              S.B. No. 542
       74R3498 DRH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to allowing certain counties to cancel certain platted
    1-3  subdivisions if the land has not been developed.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 232, Local Government Code, is amended by
    1-6  adding Section 232.0085 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 232.0085.  CANCELLATION OF CERTAIN SUBDIVISIONS IF LAND
    1-8  REMAINS UNDEVELOPED.  (a)  This section applies only to real
    1-9  property located:
   1-10              (1)  outside municipalities and the extraterritorial
   1-11  jurisdiction of municipalities, as determined under Chapter 42; and
   1-12              (2)  in an affected county, as defined by Section
   1-13  16.341, Water Code, that has adopted the model rules developed
   1-14  under Section 16.343, Water Code.
   1-15        (b)  The commissioners court of a county may cancel, after
   1-16  notice and a hearing as required by this section, a subdivision for
   1-17  which the plat was filed and approved before September 1, 1989, if
   1-18  the development of or the making of improvements in the subdivision
   1-19  was not begun before January 1, 1995.
   1-20        (c)  The commissioners court must publish notice of a
   1-21  proposal to cancel a subdivision under this section and the time
   1-22  and place of the required hearing in a newspaper of general
   1-23  circulation in the county for at least 21 days immediately before
   1-24  the date a cancellation order is adopted under this section.   The
    2-1  county tax assessor-collector shall, not later than the 14th day
    2-2  before the date of the hearing, deposit with the United States
    2-3  Postal Service a similar notice addressed to each owner of land in
    2-4  the subdivision, as determined by the most recent county tax roll.
    2-5        (d)  At the hearing, the commissioners court shall permit any
    2-6  interested person to be heard.  At the conclusion of the hearing,
    2-7  the court shall adopt an order on whether to cancel the
    2-8  subdivision.  The commissioners court may adopt an order canceling
    2-9  a subdivision if the court determines the cancellation is in the
   2-10  best interest of the public.  The court may not adopt an order
   2-11  canceling a subdivision if:
   2-12              (1)  the cancellation interferes with the established
   2-13  rights of a person who owns any part of the subdivision, unless the
   2-14  person agrees to the cancellation; or
   2-15              (2)  the owner of the entire subdivision is able to
   2-16  show that:
   2-17                    (A)  the owner of the subdivision is able to
   2-18  comply with the minimum state standards and model political
   2-19  subdivision rules developed under Section 16.343, Water Code,
   2-20  including any bonding requirements; or
   2-21                    (B)  the land was developed or improved within
   2-22  the period described by Subsection (b).
   2-23        (e)  The commissioners court shall file the cancellation
   2-24  order for recording in the deed records of the county.  After the
   2-25  cancellation order is filed and recorded, the property shall be
   2-26  treated as if it had never been subdivided, and the county tax
   2-27  assessor-collector shall assess the property accordingly.
    3-1        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-6  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-7  passage, and it is so enacted.