HBA-BSM H.B. 1490 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1490
By: Geren
Land & Resource Management
7/26/2001
Enrolled



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Prior to the 77th Legislature, a municipality with a population of 250,000
or less that owned land within 5,000 feet of a shoreline of a lake could
sell the land to the leaseholder without notice or the solicitation of
bids.  Under previous law, larger cities were required to accept  public
bids on such property and award the property to the highest bidder.
However, many of these properties are currently leased to individuals that
have resided on the property for a number of years.  Although the land
being leased is owned by the city, the improvements on the leased land are
usually owned by the resident.  Therefore, the bid requirement puts into
place a process that may cause the current leaseholder to move from the
property and sell any improvements.  House Bill 1490 authorizes a
municipality with a population of 575,000 or less to sell such land at the
fair market value directly to the leaseholder. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1490 amends the Local Government Code to raise from 250,000 to
575,000 the population limit for a municipality to have the authority to
sell land within 5,000 feet of where the shoreline of a lake would be if
the lake were filled to its storage capacity to the person leasing the land
for the fair market value of the land without notice or the solicitation of
bids. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

June 15, 2001.