By Flores                                             H.B. No. 3684
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to gates on third-class neighborhood roads.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Chapter 251.010, Transportation Code is amended
 1-5     to read:
 1-6           (a)  A person or a homeowner's association who owns or
 1-7     controls real property on which a third-class road or a
 1-8     neighborhood road established under Section 251.053 is located for
 1-9     which the right-of-way was obtained without cost to the county may
1-10     erect a gate across the road when necessary.  The person shall
1-11     place a permanent hitching post and stile block on each side of the
1-12     gate within 60 feet of the gate.  The gate must be:
1-13                 (1)  at least 10 feet wide;
1-14                 (2)  free of obstructions above the gate;
1-15                 (3)  constructed so that opening and shutting the gate
1-16     will not cause unnecessary delay to emergency personnel or a person
1-17     using the road; and
1-18                 (4)  constructed with a fastening to hold the gate open
1-19     until a person using the gate passes through it.
1-20           (b)  The property owner or homeowners association shall keep
1-21     the gate and the approaches to the gate in good order.
 2-1           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three consecutive
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and that this Act takes effect and
 2-7     be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.