1-1     By:  Wentworth                                        S.B. No. 1558

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 14, 1997; March 20, 1997, read

 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;

 1-4     April 10, 1997, reported adversely, with favorable Committee

 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; April 10, 1997,

 1-6     sent to printer.)

 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1558               By:  Wentworth

 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-9                                   AN ACT

1-10     relating to adding land to a defined area within a water control

1-11     and improvement district by petition of landowner.

1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-13           SECTION 1.  Subchapter L, Chapter 51, Water Code, is amended

1-14     by adding Section 51.5301 to read as follows:

1-15           Sec. 51.5301.  ADDING LAND TO DEFINED AREA BY PETITION OF

1-16     LANDOWNER.  (a)  The owner of land subject to a water quality plan

1-17     approved by the commission may file with the board a petition

1-18     requesting that the land described by metes and bounds in the

1-19     petition, whether contiguous or not to the defined area, be

1-20     included within a defined area previously established under Section

1-21     51.518.

1-22           (b)  If the defined area has bonds, notes, or other

1-23     obligations outstanding or bonds payable in whole or in part from

1-24     taxes that have been voted but are unissued for the defined area,

1-25     the board may require the petitioner or petitioners to assume their

1-26     share of the outstanding bonds, notes, or other obligations and the

1-27     voted but unissued tax bonds of the defined area and to authorize

1-28     the board to levy a tax on their property in each year in which any

1-29     of the bonds, notes, or other obligations payable in whole or in

1-30     part from taxation on the defined area are outstanding to pay their

1-31     share of the indebtedness.

1-32           (c)  A petition of the landowner to add land to the defined

1-33     area shall be signed and executed in the manner provided by law for

1-34     the conveyance of real estate.

1-35           (d)  The board shall hear and consider the petition and may

1-36     add to the defined area the land described in the petition if it is

1-37     feasible, practicable, and to the advantage of the defined area and

1-38     if the defined area's system and other improvements of the defined

1-39     area are sufficient or will be sufficient to supply the added land

1-40     without injuring land already in the defined area.

1-41           (e)  If the defined area has bonds payable in whole or in

1-42     part from taxation of a defined area that are voted but unissued at

1-43     the time of annexation and the petitioners assume the bonds and

1-44     authorize the district to levy a tax on their property to pay the

1-45     bonds of the defined area, the board may issue the voted but

1-46     unissued bonds even though the boundaries of the defined area have

1-47     been altered since the authorization of the bonds.

1-48           (f)  The granted petition shall be filed for record and shall

1-49     be recorded in the office of the county clerk of the county or

1-50     counties in which the added land is located.

1-51           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-52     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-53     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-54     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-55     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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