HBA-JLV H.B. 2977 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2977 By: Dukes Land & Resource Management 4/4/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Impervious ground cover regulations limit the percentage of property that can be used for building or expanding. Southwestern Bell (SWB) is mandated by state law to serve customers in its certified area. SWB has seen tremendous demand for services and increases in the average number of lines per household. The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that SWB provide space in central offices for competitors to collocate for interconnection purposes. Central offices built years ago may need to be expanded, but have in many cases become landlocked residentially or commercially and in some cases by city purchase. Because of central offices becoming landlocked and impervious ground cover rules, SWB may have to initiate condemnation procedures to acquire needed land. House Bill 2977 provides that additional suitable vacant land contiguous with a proposed site sufficient to satisfy the impervious cover regulation must be available through purchase or grant in order for a regulating authority to deny a request to construct or expand a facility. 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 2977 amends the Local Government Code to require a regulating authority to review and grant or deny a written request by a telecommunications utility or public utility to construct a facility or expand an existing facility on real property owned, leased, or occupied by the telecommunications utility or public utility in an area governed by an impervious cover regulation within 30 days of delivery of the request to the regulating authority. The regulating authority is deemed to have granted the request unless within 30 days of delivery of the request, after hearing, the regulating authority determines in writing that: _the request does not meet the standards of the applicable impervious cover regulation; and _additional, suitable vacant land contiguous with the proposed building site sufficient to satisfy the impervious cover regulation is available through purchase or grant without condemnation in a reasonable time, not to exceed 60 days from the date of the request for a price not exceeding the lowest fair market value of vacant land within a one-mile radius of the facility. The bill provides that if the regulating authority denies the request, the determination is required to detail the findings upon which the regulating authority denies the request. The Public Utility Commission of Texas is required to have jurisdiction over regulating authorities necessary to enforce the provisions of the Act and to ensure that all other legal requirements are enforced in a competitively neutral, non-discriminatory, and reasonable manner. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.