BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center H.B. 3325
By: Escobar (Lucio)
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
As a result of the unique challenges of development on a barrier island, an environmentally sensitive part of the state, the Town of South Padre Island wishes to extend its extraterritorial jurisdiction to better protect the beach and dune system of southern South Padre Island, and enhance development opportunities that take advantage of the natural resources of the land.
The sand dunes along the beach on barrier islands are an especially fragile environmental feature important to the barrier island ecosystem, and local governments have been granted broad authority to protect them. Due to an increase in developer interest on the southern portion of South Padre Island, the Town of South Padre Island believes the state's interest in preserving these environmental features can be served by granting the town an extended extraterritorial jurisdiction, thereby allowing it to impose its proven effective development standards on a larger portion of southern South Padre Island.
H.B. 3325 grants the Town of South Padre Island a five mile extraterritorial jurisdiction.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 42.012, Local Government Code, as follows:
Sec. 42.021. EXTENT OF EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION. (a) Creates this subsection from existing text.
(b) Provides that, regardless of Subsection (a), the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality is the unincorporated area that is contiguous to the corporate boundaries of the municipality and that is located within five miles of those boundaries on the barrier island if the municipality meets certain criteria.
SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2007.