By: Harris S.B. No. 1412
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to assessments for municipal street improvements based on
1-2 the amount of special benefits received.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 4, Chapter 106, Acts of the 40th
1-5 Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1927 (Article 1105b, Vernon's
1-6 Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 4. (a) That the cost of such improvements may be
1-8 wholly paid by the city, or partly by the city and partly by
1-9 property abutting upon the highway or portion thereof ordered to be
1-10 improved, and the owners of such property.
1-11 (b) The amount of assessment or reassessment may not exceed
1-12 the amount of the special benefits resulting from the enhanced
1-13 value conferred on the property.
1-14 (c) A speculative conclusion, without basis in fact, may not
1-15 be considered in determining a special benefit.
1-16 (d) In determining if a special benefit has accrued to a
1-17 property, evidence that may be considered includes:
1-18 (1) a description of the proposed project and the
1-19 affected property;
1-20 (2) the date the special benefits are expected to
1-21 accrue to the property;
1-22 (3) an analysis of the market influences on the
1-23 proposed project;
1-24 (4) a statement of the highest and best use of the
2-1 property that is part of the project;
2-2 (5) a statement concerning the type of municipal
2-3 project and the project's economic relationship to the property;
2-4 (6) the cost, income, and market data methods used in
2-5 determining the enhanced value of the property, if the
2-6 determinations are available; and
2-7 (7) any other evidence relevant to the issue.
2-8 (e) If<, but if> any part of the cost is to be paid by such
2-9 abutting property and the owners, then before any such improvements
2-10 are actually constructed, and before any hearing herein provided
2-11 for is held, the governing body shall prepare, or cause to be
2-12 prepared, an estimate of the cost of such improvements, and in no
2-13 event shall more than all the cost of constructing, reconstructing,
2-14 repairing and realigning curbs, gutters and sidewalks, and
2-15 nine-tenths of the remaining cost of such improvements as shown on
2-16 such estimate be assessed against such abutting property and owners
2-17 thereof.
2-18 (f) The owner of property shall be given notice of any
2-19 proposed assessment or reassessment and an opportunity, under the
2-20 municipal rules or ordinances, to contest at a hearing an issue
2-21 relating to the assessment or reassessment before the governing
2-22 body.
2-23 (g) If proper notice has been delivered to the owner of the
2-24 property, failure to appear before the governing body at the time
2-25 of the hearing is deemed to constitute the owner's acceptance and
2-26 agreement to the assessment or reassessment and the owner shall
2-27 have no further remedy at law.
3-1 (h) In this section, "special benefit" means improved or
3-2 sustained access to a specific property or another characteristic
3-3 that would improve or sustain a property's marketability.
3-4 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
3-5 applies only to an action for an assessment or reassessment
3-6 initiated on or after that date. An action for an assessment or
3-7 reassessment initiated before September 1, 1995, is governed by the
3-8 law as it existed immediately before that date, and the former law
3-9 is continued in effect for that purpose.
3-10 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-11 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-12 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-13 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-14 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.