1-1 By: Deshotel (Senate Sponsor - Bernsen) H.B. No. 3554
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 19, 1999;
1-3 April 20, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Natural Resources; May 12, 1999, reported favorably by the
1-5 following vote: Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 12, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to correcting the statutory description of the boundaries
1-9 of the Port Arthur Navigation District.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Section 1, Chapter 197, Acts of the 58th
1-12 Legislature, Regular Session, 1963, as amended, is amended to read
1-13 as follows:
1-14 Sec. 1. There is hereby created within the State of Texas,
1-15 in addition to the districts into which the state has heretofore
1-16 been divided, a port district to be known as the Port of Port
1-17 Arthur Navigation District of Jefferson County, Texas, situated in
1-18 Jefferson County, Texas, with boundaries as hereinafter set out
1-19 (hereinafter called the district). Such district shall be and is
1-20 hereby declared to be a governmental agency and body politic and
1-21 corporate with the powers of government and with the authority to
1-22 exercise the rights, privileges and functions hereinafter
1-23 specified, and the creation of such district is hereby determined
1-24 to be essential to the accomplishment of the purposes of Section
1-25 59, of Article 16, of the Constitution of the State of Texas,
1-26 including (to the extent hereinafter authorized) the improvement of
1-27 navigation and the maintenance, development, extension and
1-28 improvement of port facilities, wharf and dock facilities, and the
1-29 development of the Port of Port Arthur within the boundaries
1-30 thereof as hereby established, which is declared to be essential to
1-31 the general welfare of the State of Texas for the development of
1-32 maritime shipping to and from its ports, and in the interest of
1-33 national defense; the Port of Port Arthur being strategically
1-34 located on the Gulf Coast with an inland-protected harbor and in a
1-35 rapidly developing industrial area wherein shipyards and
1-36 shipstoring basins are located, and the creation of said port
1-37 district will result in material benefits and improvements to the
1-38 territory included therein and in the increase of taxable values of
1-39 property included therein, and result in material benefit to that
1-40 section of the state in which same is located.
1-41 The boundaries of said district in Jefferson County, Texas,
1-42 are as follows:
1-43 "BEGINNING at a point of the junction of the center line of
1-44 the rights-of-way of State Highway 87 and the city limits line of
1-45 the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20, 1963) in the
1-46 Neches River;
1-47 THENCE following the city limit line of the City of Port
1-48 Arthur (as it existed on April 20, 1963) in the Neches River,
1-49 southward and eastward to a point in the geographic middle of the
1-50 Neches River at its entrance into Sabine Lake;
1-51 THENCE continue to follow southward and eastward, the city
1-52 limit line of the City of Port Arthur, (as it existed on January 1,
1-53 1974) to the point of junction with the geographic middle of Sabine
1-54 Lake;
1-55 THENCE southward and westward along the center line of Sabine
1-56 Lake to a point due east [west] of the junction of the center line
1-57 of the Intracoastal Canal and the center line of the Sabine-Neches
1-58 Ship Canal;
1-59 THENCE due west to the center line of the Intracoastal Canal
1-60 at a point of its junction with the center line of the
1-61 Sabine-Neches Ship Canal;
1-62 THENCE westward along the center line of the Intracoastal
1-63 Canal to its junction with the center line of Jefferson County
1-64 Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal;
2-1 THENCE northward along the center line of Jefferson County
2-2 Drainage District #7 Outfall Canal to its junction with the center
2-3 line of Taylor's Bayou;
2-4 THENCE westward and northward along the center line of
2-5 Taylor's Bayou to its junction with the center line of Rodair
2-6 Gully;
2-7 THENCE eastward along the center line of Rodair Gully to the
2-8 center line of the rights-of-way of the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road;
2-9 THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
2-10 the Viterbo [Vitterbo] Road to the center line of the rights-of-way
2-11 line of State Highway 69;
2-12 THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
2-13 of State Highway 69 to the center line of the rights-of-way of FM
2-14 Road No. 365;
2-15 THENCE eastward along the center line of the rights-of-way of
2-16 FM Road No. 365 to the center line of the rights-of-way of State
2-17 Highway 347;
2-18 THENCE southward along the center line of the rights-of-way
2-19 of State Highway 347 to the center line of the rights-of-way of
2-20 State Highway 73;
2-21 THENCE [southward and] eastward along the center line of the
2-22 rights-of-way of State Highway 73 to the center line of the
2-23 rights-of-way of State Highway 87;
2-24 THENCE northward and eastward along the center line of the
2-25 rights-of-way of State Highway 87 to its junction with the city
2-26 limit line of the City of Port Arthur (as it existed on April 20,
2-27 1963) in the Neches River, the point of beginning."
2-28 SECTION 2. Proof of publication of the constitutional notice
2-29 required in the enactment hereof under the provisions of Article
2-30 XVI, Section 59(d), of the Texas Constitution has been made in the
2-31 manner provided therein, and a copy of said notice and the bill as
2-32 originally introduced have been delivered to the Governor of the
2-33 State of Texas as required by such constitutional provision, and
2-34 such notice and delivery are hereby found and declared to be proper
2-35 and sufficient to satisfy such requirement.
2-36 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-37 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-38 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-39 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-40 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-41 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-42 passage, and it is so enacted.
2-43 * * * * *