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


Senate Research Center   S.B. 1185
77R7051 MTB-FBy: Whitmire
Business & Commerce
4/3/2001
As Filed


DIGEST AND PURPOSE 

Currently, certain municipalities require property owners to maintain a
percentage of the property they own as "green space." As proposed, 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 TELECOMMUNICATIONS FACILITIES

Sec. 246.001. DEFINITIONS. Defines "commission," "facility," "impervious
cover regulations," "public utility," "regulating authority," and
"telecommunications utility." 

Sec. 246.002. REQUEST PROCESS. Requires a regulating authority that
receives 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 impervious cover regulation to
approve or deny the request not later than the 30th 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, the request is approved, and the regulating authority is
prohibited from applying the authority's impervious cover regulations to
the property that is the subject of the request. 

Sec. 246.003. 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