1-1 By: Harris S.B. No. 1412
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 13, 1995; March 20, 1995, read
1-3 first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental
1-4 Relations; March 23, 1995, rereferred to Committee on
1-5 Jurisprudence; April 4, 1995, reported favorably by the following
1-6 vote: Yeas 6, Nays 0; April 4, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-7 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-8 AN ACT
1-9 relating to assessments for municipal street improvements based on
1-10 the amount of special benefits received.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Section 4, Chapter 106, Acts of the 40th
1-13 Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1927 (Article 1105b, Vernon's
1-14 Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
1-15 Sec. 4. (a) That the cost of such improvements may be
1-16 wholly paid by the city, or partly by the city and partly by
1-17 property abutting upon the highway or portion thereof ordered to be
1-18 improved, and the owners of such property.
1-19 (b) The amount of assessment or reassessment may not exceed
1-20 the amount of the special benefits resulting from the enhanced
1-21 value conferred on the property.
1-22 (c) A speculative conclusion, without basis in fact, may not
1-23 be considered in determining a special benefit.
1-24 (d) In determining if a special benefit has accrued to a
1-25 property, evidence that may be considered includes:
1-26 (1) a description of the proposed project and the
1-27 affected property;
1-28 (2) the date the special benefits are expected to
1-29 accrue to the property;
1-30 (3) an analysis of the market influences on the
1-31 proposed project;
1-32 (4) a statement of the highest and best use of the
1-33 property that is part of the project;
1-34 (5) a statement concerning the type of municipal
1-35 project and the project's economic relationship to the property;
1-36 (6) the cost, income, and market data methods used in
1-37 determining the enhanced value of the property, if the
1-38 determinations are available; and
1-39 (7) any other evidence relevant to the issue.
1-40 (e) If<, but if> any part of the cost is to be paid by such
1-41 abutting property and the owners, then before any such improvements
1-42 are actually constructed, and before any hearing herein provided
1-43 for is held, the governing body shall prepare, or cause to be
1-44 prepared, an estimate of the cost of such improvements, and in no
1-45 event shall more than all the cost of constructing, reconstructing,
1-46 repairing and realigning curbs, gutters and sidewalks, and
1-47 nine-tenths of the remaining cost of such improvements as shown on
1-48 such estimate be assessed against such abutting property and owners
1-49 thereof.
1-50 (f) The owner of property shall be given notice of any
1-51 proposed assessment or reassessment and an opportunity, under the
1-52 municipal rules or ordinances, to contest at a hearing an issue
1-53 relating to the assessment or reassessment before the governing
1-54 body.
1-55 (g) If proper notice has been delivered to the owner of the
1-56 property, failure to appear before the governing body at the time
1-57 of the hearing is deemed to constitute the owner's acceptance and
1-58 agreement to the assessment or reassessment and the owner shall
1-59 have no further remedy at law.
1-60 (h) In this section, "special benefit" means improved or
1-61 sustained access to a specific property or another characteristic
1-62 that would improve or sustain a property's marketability.
1-63 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
1-64 applies only to an action for an assessment or reassessment
1-65 initiated on or after that date. An action for an assessment or
1-66 reassessment initiated before September 1, 1995, is governed by the
1-67 law as it existed immediately before that date, and the former law
1-68 is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-1 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
2-6 * * * * *