SRC-MWN S.B. 1185 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research CenterS.B. 1185
By: Whitmire
Business & Commerce
5/17/2001
Enrolled


DIGEST AND PURPOSE 

Currently, certain municipalities require property owners to maintain a
percentage of the property they own as "green space." S.B. 1185 authorizes
telecommunications utilities and public utilities to file for exemptions
from lot coverage, impervious cover, and erosion requirements in order to
expand existing facilities. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a
state officer, institution, or agency. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Title 7C, Local Government Code, by adding Chapter 246,
as follows: 

CHAPTER 246. CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS FACILITIES

Sec. 246.001. DEFINITIONS. Defines "commission," "critical facility,"
"impervious lot coverage regulation," "regulating authority,"
"sedimentation, retention, or erosion regulation" and "telecommunications
utility." 

Sec. 246.002. APPLICABILITY. Sets forth that this chapter applies only to a
critical facility that meets certain criteria. 

Sec. 246.003. REQUEST PROCESS. Requires a regulating authority that
receives a written request by a telecommunications utility to expand a
critical facility on real property owned, leased, or occupied by the
telecommunications utility in an area governed by impervious lot cover
regulation or sedimentation, retention, or erosion regulation to approve or
deny the request not later than the 60th day after the date the request is
received. Requires the regulating authority to approve the request unless
the regulating authority finds, after a hearing, that certain factors
exist. Requires the regulatory authority to provide a written notice of a
denial. Requires the notice to specify the findings on which the authority
relied in denying the request. Provides that if a regulating authority does
not make a decision before the deadline prescribed by Subsection (a),
certain conditions apply.  

Sec. 246.004. COMMISSION JURISDICTION. Provides that the Public Utility
Commission (commission) has jurisdiction to enforce this chapter and to
ensure that legal requirements are enforced in a competitively neutral,
nondiscriminatory, and reasonable manner. 

SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2001.