By Turner of Coleman                                   H.B. No. 997
         76R2800 CAG-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the provision of services to certain areas by a
 1-3     municipality.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 43.056, Local Government Code, is amended
 1-6     by amending Subsections (a), (c), (e), and (k) to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  Before the publication of the notice of the first
 1-8     hearing required under Section 43.052, the governing body of the
 1-9     municipality proposing the annexation shall direct its planning
1-10     department or other appropriate municipal department to prepare a
1-11     service plan that provides for the extension of full municipal
1-12     services to the area to be annexed.  The municipality shall provide
1-13     the services by any of the methods by which it extends the services
1-14     to any other area of the municipality. A municipality may not
1-15     require a landowner in the area to fund the capital improvements
1-16     necessary to provide municipal services in a manner inconsistent
1-17     with Chapter 395, unless otherwise agreed to by the landowner.
1-18           (c)  For purposes of this section, "full municipal services"
1-19     means services funded in whole or in part by municipal taxation or
1-20     utility revenues and provided by the annexing municipality within
1-21     its full-purpose boundaries.  A municipality with a population of
1-22     1.5 million or more may provide all or part of the municipal
1-23     services required under the service plan by contracting with
1-24     service providers.  If the municipality owns a water and wastewater
 2-1     utility, the municipality shall, subject to this section, extend
 2-2     water and wastewater service to any annexed area not within the
 2-3     service area of another water or wastewater utility.  If the
 2-4     municipality annexes territory included within the boundaries of a
 2-5     municipal utility district or a water control and improvement
 2-6     district, the municipality shall comply with applicable state law
 2-7     relating to annexation of territory within a municipal utility
 2-8     district or a water control and improvement district.  The service
 2-9     plan shall summarize the service extension policies of the
2-10     municipal water and wastewater utility.
2-11           (e)  A service plan may not:
2-12                 (1)  require the creation of another political
2-13     subdivision;
2-14                 (2)  require a landowner in the area to fund the
2-15     capital improvements necessary to provide municipal services,
2-16     including water or wastewater service, in a manner inconsistent
2-17     with Chapter 395 unless  otherwise agreed to by the landowner; or
2-18                 (3)  provide fewer services or lower levels of services
2-19     in the area:
2-20                       (A)  than were in existence in the area
2-21     immediately preceding the date of the annexation; or
2-22                       (B)  than are otherwise available in any other
2-23     parts of the municipality with land uses and population densities
2-24     similar to those reasonably contemplated or projected in the area.
2-25           (k)  This section does not require that a uniform level of
2-26     full municipal services be provided to each area of the
2-27     municipality if different characteristics of topography, land use,
 3-1     and population density are reasonably considered a sufficient basis
 3-2     for providing different levels of service.  A municipality may not
 3-3     refuse to provide  water or wastewater service to any property in
 3-4     an annexed area if the municipality provides the service to other
 3-5     parts of the municipality.
 3-6           SECTION 2.  This Act applies to a municipal annexation for
 3-7     which any public hearing required under Chapter 43, Local
 3-8     Government Code, is held after the effective date of this Act.
 3-9           SECTION 3.  This Act does not diminish or impair the rights
3-10     or remedies of any person or entity under a final judgment rendered
3-11     by, or in any pending litigation brought in, any court relating to
3-12     an interpretation of the provisions of Section 43.056, Local
3-13     Government Code.
3-14           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
3-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-20     passage, and it is so enacted.