By Horn H.B. No. 3400
75R9278 CLG-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to requirements for the creation of a county development
1-3 district.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 312.609, Tax Code, is amended to read as
1-6 follows:
1-7 Sec. 312.609. HEARING. At the hearing, the commissioners
1-8 court shall examine the petition to ascertain its sufficiency and
1-9 economic effects, and any person interested may appear before the
1-10 commission to offer testimony on the sufficiency and economic
1-11 effects of the petition and whether or not the district should be
1-12 created.
1-13 SECTION 2. Section 312.610, Tax Code, is amended to read as
1-14 follows:
1-15 Sec. 312.610. GRANTING OR REFUSING PETITION. (a) After the
1-16 hearing, if the commissioners court finds unanimously [it is found]
1-17 that the petition conforms to the requirements of Section 312.6055
1-18 and that the creation of the district and the proposed project is
1-19 feasible and necessary and would serve the public purpose of
1-20 attracting visitors and tourists to the county, the commissioners
1-21 court shall so find and enter an order creating the district.
1-22 (b) If the commissioners court does not find unanimously
1-23 [finds] that the petition conforms [does not conform] to the
1-24 requirements of Section 312.6055 or that the creation of the
2-1 district and the proposed project is [not] feasible and necessary
2-2 and would [not] serve the purpose of attracting visitors and
2-3 tourists to the county, the commissioners court shall so find by
2-4 its order and deny the petition.
2-5 SECTION 3. Section 312.638, Tax Code, is amended to read as
2-6 follows:
2-7 Sec. 312.638. ADDING AND EXCLUDING LAND FROM THE DISTRICT.
2-8 (a) Before the board issues bonds, the board may, on its own
2-9 motion or on request of a landowner in the district, petition the
2-10 county commissioners for the addition of land to or exclusion of
2-11 land from the district.
2-12 (b) Not later than the 60th day after the date on which a
2-13 petition to add land to the district is received under this
2-14 section, the commissioners court shall set a date, time, and place
2-15 for a hearing on the petition.
2-16 (c) At least 30 days before the date set for the hearing,
2-17 the board shall mail notice of the date, time, place, and subject
2-18 matter of the hearing to the landowners of all the land in the
2-19 district and of all the land that is to be added to the district.
2-20 The notice must:
2-21 (1) be published in a newspaper with general
2-22 circulation in the county in which the land proposed to be added to
2-23 the district is located; and
2-24 (2) inform the landowner of the landowner's right to
2-25 appear and present evidence and testify for or against the addition
2-26 of the land to the district.
2-27 (d) At the hearing of the petition, the commissioners court
3-1 shall examine the petition to ascertain its sufficiency and
3-2 economic effects, and any interested person may appear before the
3-3 commissioners court to offer testimony on the sufficiency and
3-4 economic effects of the petition and whether the land that is the
3-5 subject of the petition should be added to the district.
3-6 (e) The commissioners court shall enter in its records an
3-7 order adding the land to the district only if the commissioners
3-8 court unanimously determines from the evidence at the hearing that
3-9 the best interests of the persons and property in the district and
3-10 the persons and property in the land to be added to the district
3-11 will be served by the addition of the land to the district.
3-12 (f) If the commissioners court unanimously determines from
3-13 the evidence at a hearing to exclude land from the district that
3-14 the best interests of the persons and property in the district will
3-15 be served by [adding or] excluding the land, the commissioners
3-16 court shall enter in its records the appropriate findings and order
3-17 [adding or] excluding the land.
3-18 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-23 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-24 passage, and it is so enacted.