By Flores H.B. No. 644
76R2025 DRH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the regulation of colonia developments in certain
1-3 counties.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 232.021(3), Local Government Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (3) "Common promotional plan" means any plan or scheme
1-8 of operation undertaken by a single subdivider or a group of
1-9 subdividers acting in concert, either personally or through an
1-10 agent, to offer for sale or lease lots when the lots are [land is:]
1-11 [(A) contiguous or] part of the same contiguous
1-12 tract [area] of land[; or]
1-13 [(B) known, designated, or advertised as a
1-14 common unit or by a common name].
1-15 SECTION 2. Section 232.022(a), Local Government Code, is
1-16 amended to read as follows:
1-17 (a) This subchapter applies only to a contiguous tract of
1-18 land that is subdivided into four or more lots that are intended by
1-19 the seller primarily for residential use in the jurisdiction of an
1-20 affected county. A lot is presumed to be intended for residential
1-21 use if the lot is one acre [five acres] or less. This subchapter
1-22 does not apply if the subdivision is incident to the conveyance of
1-23 the land as a gift between persons related to each other within the
1-24 third degree by affinity or consanguinity, as determined under
2-1 Chapter 573, Government Code.
2-2 SECTION 3. Section 232.035(f), Local Government Code, is
2-3 amended to read as follows:
2-4 (f) Venue for an action under this section is in a [district
2-5 court of Travis County, a] district court in the county in which
2-6 the defendant resides[,] or a district court in the county in which
2-7 the violation or threat of violation occurs.
2-8 SECTION 4. Section 232.036(e), Local Government Code, is
2-9 amended to read as follows:
2-10 (e) Venue for prosecution for a violation under this section
2-11 is in the county in which any element of the violation is alleged
2-12 to have occurred [or in Travis County].
2-13 SECTION 5. Section 7.189, Water Code, is amended to read as
2-14 follows:
2-15 Sec. 7.189. VENUE. Venue for prosecution of an alleged
2-16 violation under this subchapter is in:
2-17 (1) the county in which the violation is alleged to
2-18 have occurred;
2-19 (2) the county where the defendant resides;
2-20 (3) if the alleged violation involves the
2-21 transportation of a discharge, waste, or pollutant, any county to
2-22 which or through which the discharge, waste, or pollutant was
2-23 transported; or
2-24 (4) Travis County, except for an offense under Section
2-25 7.143.
2-26 SECTION 6. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
2-27 section, the changes in law made by this Act apply to a suit or
3-1 proceeding brought before the effective date of this Act for which
3-2 a judgment has not been signed by the trial court as of the
3-3 effective date of this Act.
3-4 (b) A suit or proceeding brought in Travis County before the
3-5 effective date of this Act is not affected by the change in law
3-6 made in Section 3, 4, or 5 of this Act relating to where a suit or
3-7 prosecution may be brought.
3-8 SECTION 7. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-14 passage, and it is so enacted.