This website will be unavailable from Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.

                                                                                

79R3391 UM-F

By:  Zedler                                                       H.B. No. 892



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to certain swimming pools as public nuisances in 
unincorporated areas of certain counties.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 343.011(c), Health and Safety Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
	(c)  A public nuisance is:                                                     
		(1)  keeping, storing, or accumulating refuse on 
premises in a neighborhood unless the refuse is entirely contained 
in a closed receptacle;
		(2)  keeping, storing, or accumulating rubbish, 
including newspapers, abandoned vehicles, refrigerators, stoves, 
furniture, tires, and cans, on premises in a neighborhood or within 
300 feet of a public street for 10 days or more, unless the rubbish 
or object is completely enclosed in a building or is not visible 
from a public street;
		(3)  maintaining premises in a manner that creates an 
unsanitary condition likely to attract or harbor mosquitoes, 
rodents, vermin, or disease-carrying pests;
		(4)  allowing weeds to grow on premises in a 
neighborhood if the weeds are located within 300 feet of another 
residence or commercial establishment;
		(5)  maintaining a building in a manner that is 
structurally unsafe or constitutes a hazard to safety, health, or 
public welfare because of inadequate maintenance, unsanitary 
conditions, dilapidation, obsolescence, disaster, damage, or 
abandonment or because it constitutes a fire hazard;
		(6)  maintaining on abandoned and unoccupied property 
in a neighborhood a swimming pool that is not protected with:
			(A)  a fence that is at least four feet high and 
that has a latched gate that cannot be opened by a child; or
			(B)  a cover over the entire swimming pool that 
cannot be removed by a child;
		(7)  maintaining a flea market in a manner that 
constitutes a fire hazard;  
		(8)  discarding refuse or creating a hazardous visual 
obstruction on:       
			(A)  county-owned land; or                                                   
			(B)  land or easements owned or held by a special 
district that has the commissioners court of the county as its 
governing body; [or]
		(9)  discarding refuse on the smaller of:                                     
			(A)  the area that spans 20 feet on each side of a 
utility line; or        
			(B)  the actual span of the utility easement; or                      
		(10)  in a county with a population of more than 1.4 
million, maintaining in a neighborhood a swimming pool that is not 
protected with:
			(A)  a fence that is at least four feet high and 
that has a latched gate that cannot be opened by a child; or
			(B)  a cover over the entire swimming pool that 
cannot be removed by a child.
	SECTION 2.  A person is not required to comply with Section 
343.011, Health and Safety Code, as amended by this Act, before 
January 1, 2006.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.