80R2406 KCR-D
 
  By: Giddings H.B. No. 1742
 
 
 
   
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to urban land bank demonstration programs.
       BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
       SECTION 1.  Section 361.1875, Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
       Sec. 361.1875.  EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN POTENTIALLY
RESPONSIBLE PARTIES.  (a) The commission may not name a person as a
responsible party for an enforcement action or require a person to
reimburse remediation costs for a site if the commission has
conducted an investigation of a site owned or operated by the person
and as a result of the investigation has determined that:
             (1)  the contaminants that are the subject of
investigation under this subchapter appear to originate from an
up-gradient, off-site source that is not owned or operated by the
person;
             (2)  additional corrective action is not required at
the site owned or operated by the person; and
             (3)  the commission will not undertake a formal
enforcement action in the matter.
       (b)  The commission may not name a land bank under Chapter
379C, Local Government Code, as a responsible party for an
enforcement action or require the land bank to reimburse
remediation costs for a site if the commission has conducted an
investigation of a site owned or operated by the land bank and as a
result of the investigation has determined that:
             (1)  the contaminants that are the subject of
investigation under this subchapter:
                   (A)  appear to originate from an up-gradient,
off-site source that is not owned or operated by the land bank; or
                   (B)  appear to have been present on the site
before the land bank purchased the site; and
             (2)  the land bank could not have reasonably known
about the contaminants at the time the land bank purchased the site.
       SECTION 2.  Section 379C.003(3), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
             (3)  "Low income household" means a household with a
gross income of not greater than 140 [80] percent of the area median
family income, adjusted for household size, for the metropolitan
statistical area in which the municipality is located, as
determined annually by the United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
       SECTION 3.  Section 379C.008(a), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
       (a)  Notwithstanding any other law and except as provided by
Subsection (f), property that is ordered sold pursuant to
foreclosure of a tax lien may be sold in a private sale to a land
bank by the officer charged with the sale of the property without
first offering the property for sale as otherwise provided by
Section 34.01, Tax Code, if:
             (1)  the market value of the property as specified in
the judgment of foreclosure is less than the total amount due under
the judgment, including all taxes, penalties, and interest, plus
the value of nontax liens held by a taxing unit and awarded by the
judgment, court costs, and the cost of the sale;
             (2)  the property is not improved with a habitable
building or buildings;
             (3)  there are delinquent taxes on the property for a
total of at least five [each of the preceding six] years; and
             (4)  the municipality has executed with the other
taxing units that are parties to the tax suit an interlocal
agreement that enables those units to agree to participate in the
program while retaining the right to withhold consent to the sale of
specific properties to the land bank.
       SECTION 4.  Section 379C.010(b), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
       (b)  At least 20 [25] percent of the land bank properties
sold during any given fiscal year to be developed for sale shall be
deed restricted for sale to households with gross household incomes
not greater than 60 percent of the area median family income,
adjusted for household size, for the metropolitan statistical area
in which the municipality is located, as determined annually by the
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
       SECTION 5.  Section 379C.011(d), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
       (d)  The municipality shall specify in its plan that the
period during which the right of first refusal provided by this
section may be exercised by a qualified organization is six [. That
period must be at least nine months but not more than 26] months
from the date of the deed of conveyance of the property to the land
bank.
       SECTION 6.  Section 11.18, Tax Code, is amended by amending
Subsection (d) and adding Subsection (o) to read as follows:
       (d)  A charitable organization must be organized exclusively
to perform religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or
educational purposes and, except as permitted by Subsections (h)
and (l), engage exclusively in performing one or more of the
following charitable functions:
             (1)  providing medical care without regard to the
beneficiaries' ability to pay, which in the case of a nonprofit
hospital or hospital system means providing charity care and
community benefits in accordance with Section 11.1801;
             (2)  providing support or relief to orphans,
delinquent, dependent, or handicapped children in need of
residential care, abused or battered spouses or children in need of
temporary shelter, the impoverished, or victims of natural disaster
without regard to the beneficiaries' ability to pay;
             (3)  providing support to elderly persons, including
the provision of recreational or social activities and facilities
designed to address the special needs of elderly persons, or to the
handicapped, without regard to the beneficiaries' ability to pay;
             (4)  preserving a historical landmark or site;
             (5)  promoting or operating a museum, zoo, library,
theater of the dramatic or performing arts, or symphony orchestra
or choir;
             (6)  promoting or providing humane treatment of
animals;
             (7)  acquiring, storing, transporting, selling, or
distributing water for public use;
             (8)  answering fire alarms and extinguishing fires with
no compensation or only nominal compensation to the members of the
organization;
             (9)  promoting the athletic development of boys or
girls under the age of 18 years;
             (10)  preserving or conserving wildlife;
             (11)  promoting educational development through loans
or scholarships to students;
             (12)  providing halfway house services pursuant to a
certification as a halfway house by the pardons and paroles
division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice;
             (13)  providing permanent housing and related social,
health care, and educational facilities for persons who are 62
years of age or older without regard to the residents' ability to
pay;
             (14)  promoting or operating an art gallery, museum, or
collection, in a permanent location or on tour, that is open to the
public;
             (15)  providing for the organized solicitation and
collection for distributions through gifts, grants, and agreements
to nonprofit charitable, education, religious, and youth
organizations that provide direct human, health, and welfare
services;
             (16)  performing biomedical or scientific research or
biomedical or scientific education for the benefit of the public;
             (17)  operating a television station that produces or
broadcasts educational, cultural, or other public interest
programming and that receives grants from the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting under 47 U.S.C. Section 396, as amended;
             (18)  providing housing for low-income and
moderate-income families, for unmarried individuals 62 years of age
or older, for handicapped individuals, and for families displaced
by urban renewal, through the use of trust assets that are
irrevocably and, pursuant to a contract entered into before
December 31, 1972, contractually dedicated on the sale or
disposition of the housing to a charitable organization that
performs charitable functions described by Subdivision (9);
             (19)  providing housing and related services to persons
who are 62 years of age or older in a retirement community, if the
retirement community provides independent living services,
assisted living services, and nursing services to its residents on
a single campus:
                   (A)  without regard to the residents' ability to
pay; or
                   (B)  in which at least four percent of the
retirement community's combined net resident revenue is provided in
charitable care to its residents; [or]
             (20)  providing housing on a cooperative basis to
students of an institution of higher education if:
                   (A)  the organization is exempt from federal
income taxation under Section 501(a), Internal Revenue Code of
1986, as amended, by being listed as an exempt entity under Section
501(c)(3) of that code;
                   (B)  membership in the organization is open to all
students enrolled in the institution and is not limited to those
chosen by current members of the organization;
                   (C)  the organization is governed by its members;
and
                   (D)  the members of the organization share the
responsibility for managing the housing; or
             (21)  acquiring, holding, and transferring unimproved
real property under an urban land bank demonstration program
established under Chapter 379C, Local Government Code, as or on
behalf of a land bank.
       (o)  For purposes of Subsection (a)(2), real property
acquired, held, and transferred by an organization that performs
the function described by Subsection (d)(21) is considered to be
used exclusively by the qualified charitable organization to
perform that function.
       SECTION 7.  (a) Section 361.1875, Health and Safety Code, as
amended by this Act, applies only to a site investigation conducted
by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that begins on or
after the effective date of this Act. A site investigation that
begins before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law
in effect at the time the investigation began, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
       (b)  The changes in law made by this Act to Chapter 379C,
Local Government Code, apply only to an urban land bank
demonstration program operating in conformance with an urban land
bank demonstration plan adopted by the governing body of a
municipality on or after the effective date of this Act. An urban
land bank demonstration program operating in conformance with an
urban land bank demonstration plan adopted before the effective
date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the
plan was adopted until a subsequent plan is adopted, and the former
law is continued in effect for that purpose.
       (c)  Section 11.18, Tax Code, as amended by this Act, applies
only to an ad valorem tax year that begins on or after the effective
date of this Act.
       SECTION 8.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2007.