CPC S.B. 1339 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS LAND & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT S.B. 1339 By: Patterson, Jerry (Gray) 5-14-97 Committee Report (Amended) BACKGROUND Currently, there is no statewide program to help fund procedures to alleviate coastal erosion problems. This bill creates a program administered by the General Land Office to look for alternative ways to help slow the erosion. PURPOSE SB 1339 is intended to bring state resources to bear on coastal erosion problems, whose management has proven to be beyond the capacity of landowners and many local governments. The bill creates a coastal erosion response fund to be administered by the Texas General Land Office. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does expressly grant additional rulemaking authority to the commissioner of the General Land Office in Sec. 33.603(b), Natural Resources Code, by allowing them to adopt rules for the erosion response fund. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter H, Chapter 33, Natural Resources Code, as follows: Sec. 33.601. SHORT TITLE. "Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act." Sec. 33.602. DEFINITIONS. Sec. 33.603. COASTAL EROSION PLANNING AND RESPONSE AUTHORITY. (a) Authorizes the land commissioner to design and construct erosion response projects. (b) Authorizes the commissioner to promulgate rules governing erosion response projects. (c) Authorizes the commissioner to issue grants from the fund to local governments to carry out erosion response projects. (d) Authorizes the commissioner to enter property as necessary to conduct shoreline surveys required by the bill. (e) Directs the commissioner to develop a public education program on erosion problems. (f) Preserves the rights of littoral land owners, ensuring landowner's rights of ingress and egress after projects are constructed. Sec. 33.604. COASTAL EROSION RESPONSE FUND. Provides that a coastal erosion response fund be established in the state treasury to be used by the commissioner in order to carry out this subchapter. Sec. 33.605. USES OF THE FUND. Sec. 33.606. REPORT TO LEGISLATURE. Requires the commissioner to report to the legislature at least once a biennium on the statutes of the projects and the fund and to estimate funding needed to carry out purposes of the act in the next biennium. Sec. 33.607. GRANTS TO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS. (a) Authorizes local governments to apply for erosion response project grants; sets out information local governments must include in the grant application. (b) Authorizes local governments to use erosion response fund to match in seeking other funds. (c) Authorizes the commissioner to establish cost sharing arrangements with local governments. Sec. 33.608. GRANT APPROVAL. Authorizes the commissioner to approve, disapprove, or conditionally approve grant applications. Requires the commissioner to make certain determinations and findings in approving a grant. Sec. 33.609. SURVEY REQUIREMENT. (a) Requires that a "coastal boundary survey" be conducted and that all leases, easements, or other instruments be obtained prior to undertaking any project. Once established, the surveyed boundary is fixed for the purposes of determining the shoreline boundary. (b) Requires that a statement be included in the survey explaining the purpose of the surveyed boundary. (c) Requires the commissioner to publish in the Texas Register and local newspapers the final decision approving the boundary survey and requires a copy of the survey to be recorded in the Archives and Records Division of the General Land Office. Sec. 33.610. LANDOWNER CONSENT. (a) If the project is on private property, requires that the consent of a private landowner be obtained prior to undertaking any project on those lands; in the case of PSF lands, requires the consent of the School Land Board prior to undertaking any project on those lands. (b) Upon the consent of the landowner, the commissioner may enter lands to undertake an erosion response project. (c) Specifies that no consent is required for undertaking a project on the public beach. Sec. 33.611. IMMUNITY. The state, the commissioner, and land office staff are immune from suit and from liability for any act or omission relating to several provisions set forth. Sec. 33.612. JUDICIAL REVIEW. Sec. 33.613. PROOF OF CLAIM. A person who claims title to permanent school fund land as a result of accretion, relocation, or avulsion in the coastal zone after September 1, 1997, in order to prevail in the claim, must prove requirements set forth that must be met. Sec. 33.614. CORRECTION OF TAX ROLLS. (a) The owner of the land that has become submerged because of erosion may request the commissioner's assistance under this section in removing the property from the tax rolls by submitting to the commissioner requests set forth in this subsection. (b) On receipt of this information required under Subsection (a), the commissioner shall inform the local appraisal district and identified taxing entities that the property listed on local tax rolls and the subject of the request under Subsection (a) is owned by the permanent school fund because of erosion. (c) On receipt of notice from the commissioner the district or taxing entity shall remove the property from the tax rolls. SECTION 2. (a) Effective Date: September 1, 1997. (b) Sec. 33.609 and 33.610, Natural Resources Code, as added by this Act, apply only to erosion response activity undertaken on or after September 1, 1997. (c) Sec. 33.611, Natural Resources Code, as added by this Act, Applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after September 1, 1997. A cause of action that accrued before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law as it existed immediately before that date, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose. SECTION 3. Emergency Clause. EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS Amendment 1. Inserts a new section which establishes an automobile license plate which says "Don't mess with Texas beaches." The profits created by this amendment will be deposited in the coastal erosion response fund. The original legislation did not contain this provision. Amendment 2. Strikes page 5, lines 24-25 and page 6, lines 1-2, Senate Engrossment Printing and inserts on page 6, between lines 14 and 15, Senate Engrossment Printing a new Section 33.6045, Natural Resources Code, in which a surcharge is assessed each year in the amount of $1 on each policy of Texas windstorm and hail insurance and Texas fire and explosion insurance issued through the Texas Catastrophe Property Insurance Association. The original legislation did not contain this provision. Amendment 4. In Section 2, Sec. 33.602, strikes the last sentence of Subdivision (4) and inserts "Erosion response shall not mean or refer to a beneficial use project authorized in accordance with Chapter 505, Acts of the 74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995, or the construction of breakwater or bulkhead landward of the shoreline depicted on a current coastal boundary survey conducted under Sec. 33.609." The original legislation did not contain this provision. Amendment 5. On page 12, line 2, after "office" and before the period insert "and in the real property records in the county in which the land is located". On page 12, after line 14 and before line 15 add a new subsection (d) to read "(d) The written consent of the owner must contain an adequate legal description of the private property on which erosion response activity will be undertaken and such written consent must be recorded in the real property records in the county in which the private property is located." The original legislation