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.
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