1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to correcting the statutory description of the boundaries
1-3 of the Port Arthur Navigation District.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 1, Chapter 197, Acts of the 58th
1-6 Legislature, Regular Session, 1963, as amended, is amended to read
1-7 as follows:
1-8 Sec. 1. (a) There is hereby created within the State of
1-9 Texas, in addition to the districts into which the state has
1-10 heretofore been divided, a port district to be known as the Port of
1-11 Port Arthur Navigation District of Jefferson County, Texas,
1-12 situated in Jefferson County, Texas, with boundaries as hereinafter
1-13 set out (hereinafter called the district). Such district shall be
1-14 and is hereby declared to be a governmental agency and body politic
1-15 and corporate with the powers of government and with the authority
1-16 to exercise the rights, privileges and functions hereinafter
1-17 specified, and the creation of such district is hereby determined
1-18 to be essential to the accomplishment of the purposes of Section
1-19 59, of Article 16, of the Constitution of the State of Texas,
1-20 including (to the extent hereinafter authorized) the improvement of
1-21 navigation and the maintenance, development, extension and
1-22 improvement of port facilities, wharf and dock facilities, and the
1-23 development of the Port of Port Arthur within the boundaries
1-24 thereof as hereby established, which is declared to be essential to
2-1 the general welfare of the State of Texas for the development of
2-2 maritime shipping to and from its ports, and in the interest of
2-3 national defense; the Port of Port Arthur being strategically
2-4 located on the Gulf Coast with an inland-protected harbor and in a
2-5 rapidly developing industrial area wherein shipyards and
2-6 shipstoring basins are located, and the creation of said port
2-7 district will result in material benefits and improvements to the
2-8 territory included therein and in the increase of taxable values of
2-9 property included therein, and result in material benefit to that
2-10 section of the state in which same is located.
2-11 The boundaries of said district in Jefferson County, Texas,
2-12 include two tracts of land located in Jefferson County, Texas,
2-13 described [are] as follows:
2-14 "(1) FIRST TRACT BEGINNING at a point of the junction of the
2-15 center line of the rights-of-way of State Highway 87 and the city
2-16 limits line of the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20,
2-17 1963) in the Neches River;
2-18 THENCE following the city limit line of the City of Port
2-19 Arthur (as it existed on April 20, 1963) in the Neches River,
2-20 southward and eastward to a point in the geographic middle of the
2-21 Neches River at its entrance into Sabine Lake;
2-22 THENCE continue to follow southward and eastward, the city
2-23 limit line of the City of Port Arthur, (as it existed on January 1,
2-24 1974) to the point of junction with the geographic middle of Sabine
2-25 Lake;
2-26 THENCE southward and westward along the center line of Sabine
2-27 Lake to a point due east [west] of the junction of the center line
3-1 of the Intracoastal Canal and the center line of the Sabine-Neches
3-2 Ship Canal;
3-3 THENCE due west to the center line of the Intracoastal Canal
3-4 at a point of its junction with the center line of the
3-5 Sabine-Neches Ship Canal;
3-6 THENCE westward along the center line of the Intracoastal
3-7 Canal to its junction with the center line of Jefferson County
3-8 Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal;
3-9 THENCE northward along the center line of Jefferson County
3-10 Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal to its junction with the center
3-11 line of Taylor's Bayou;
3-12 THENCE westward and northward along the center line of
3-13 Taylor's Bayou to its junction with the center line of Rodair
3-14 Gully;
3-15 THENCE eastward along the center line of Rodair Gully to the
3-16 center line of the rights-of-way of the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road;
3-17 THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
3-18 the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road to the center line of the rights-of-way
3-19 line of State Highway 69;
3-20 THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
3-21 of State Highway 69 to the center line of the rights-of-way of FM
3-22 Road No. 365;
3-23 THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
3-24 FM Road No. 365 to the center line of the rights-of-way of State
3-25 Highway 347;
3-26 THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
3-27 of State Highway 347 to the center line of the rights-of-way of
4-1 State Highway 73;
4-2 THENCE [southward and] eastward along the center line of the
4-3 rights-of-way of State Highway 73 to the center line of the
4-4 rights-of-way of State Highway 87;
4-5 THENCE northward and eastward along the center line of the
4-6 rights-of-way of State Highway 87 to its junction with the city
4-7 limit line of the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20,
4-8 1963) in the Neches River, the point of beginning.
4-9 (2) SECOND TRACT BEGINNING at a point in the geographic
4-10 middle of Sabine Lake due east of the junction of the center line
4-11 of the Intracoastal Canal and the center line of the Sabine-Neches
4-12 Ship Canal;
4-13 THENCE southward and westward along the center line of Sabine
4-14 Lake to its junction with the northeast corner of the Sabine Pass
4-15 Port Authority boundary as it exists as of January 1, 1999;
4-16 THENCE due west along the north boundary line of the Sabine
4-17 Pass Port Authority to its junction with the western bank of the
4-18 Sabine-Neches Ship Canal;
4-19 THENCE northward and westward along the meanders of the
4-20 western bank of the Sabine-Neches Ship Canal to its junction with
4-21 the center line of the Intracoastal Canal."
4-22 (b) Subsection (a)(2) shall not apply to land acquired from
4-23 the state by navigation districts under Article 8225, Revised Civil
4-24 Statutes of Texas, 1925, recodified in Sections 61.116 and 61.117
4-25 of the Water Code, or under any general or special Act. Subsection
4-26 (a)(2) shall have no effect on Section 61.116 or 61.117 of the
4-27 Water Code. For land acquired from the state as described in this
5-1 subsection, the State of Texas expressly reserves for the benefit
5-2 of the permanent school fund all oil, gas, and other minerals in,
5-3 on, or under the property, together with the unrestricted right of
5-4 ingress and egress to explore for and develop minerals reserved
5-5 therein.
5-6 SECTION 2. Proof of publication of the constitutional notice
5-7 required in the enactment hereof under the provisions of Article
5-8 XVI, Section 59(d), of the Texas Constitution has been made in the
5-9 manner provided therein, and a copy of said notice and the bill as
5-10 originally introduced have been delivered to the Governor of the
5-11 State of Texas as required by such constitutional provision, and
5-12 such notice and delivery are hereby found and declared to be proper
5-13 and sufficient to satisfy such requirement.
5-14 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
5-15 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
5-16 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
5-17 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
5-18 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
5-19 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
5-20 passage, and it is so enacted.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 3554 was passed by the House on April
16, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 136, Nays 0, 2 present, not
voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
No. 3554 on May 27, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 142, Nays 0,
2 present, not voting.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 3554 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 25, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays
0.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor