By Kuempel H.B. No. 1431
75R5586 KKA-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to removing the authority of certain local governments to
1-3 participate directly in regional habitat conservation plans;
1-4 requiring the Parks and Wildlife Department to coordinate with
1-5 governmental entities affected by the plan and to submit the plan
1-6 to the legislature for review.
1-7 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-8 SECTION 1. Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
1-9 amended to read as follows:
1-10 Sec. 83.006. Regional Plans for Endangered Species
1-11 Protection. (a) The department [and any county or city within the
1-12 state] may participate in the study, preparation, and creation of a
1-13 regional habitat conservation plan, as specified by the United
1-14 States Fish and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22), to be
1-15 submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for
1-16 approval.
1-17 (b) Any regional plan designed to protect or manage an
1-18 "endangered species" as defined in 16 U.S.C. Section 1531 et seq.
1-19 must be developed in coordination with any other state agency or
1-20 local government that may be affected by the plan, including the
1-21 Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Texas Water
1-22 Development Board, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas
1-23 Department of Agriculture, General Land Office, Railroad Commission
1-24 of Texas, and Texas Department of Commerce. A plan developed under
2-1 this subsection must [shall] be submitted to the legislature [Parks
2-2 and Wildlife Department] for review and comment before it is
2-3 submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for
2-4 approval.
2-5 [(c) In order to protect threatened and endangered species
2-6 as defined in Section 3 of the federal Endangered Species Act of
2-7 1973 and in Chapter 68, Parks and Wildlife Code, a city, both
2-8 within its corporate limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction,
2-9 and a county may:]
2-10 [(1) participate in the development of a regional
2-11 habitat conservation plan as specified by the United States Fish
2-12 and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22) and may require
2-13 information on the presence of threatened or endangered species
2-14 from permit applicants wishing to initiate a project in a defined
2-15 suitable habitat;]
2-16 [(2) enforce a regional habitat conservation plan that
2-17 has been formally approved for a given species or multiple species
2-18 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, provided that a
2-19 city may not enforce outside its corporate limits any ordinance,
2-20 rule, or regulation designed to protect or manage an endangered
2-21 species unless the requirement imposed under the ordinance, rule,
2-22 or regulation is specifically prescribed by the regional habitat
2-23 conservation plan;]
2-24 [(3) allow credits, modifications, and waivers of
2-25 other regulations to offset problems caused by the protection of
2-26 threatened or endangered species; and]
2-27 [(4) purchase land or execute leases and easements to
3-1 protect the habitat of a threatened or endangered species.]
3-2 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
3-3 SECTION 3. This Act does not impair the validity of an
3-4 easement or lease executed under Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife
3-5 Code, before the effective date of this Act.
3-6 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.