2009S0298-1 02/09/09
 
  By: Lucio S.B. No. 804
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the use of golf carts on beaches.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Subsection (d), Section 61.011, Natural
  Resources Code, is amended to read as follows:
         (d)  The commissioner shall promulgate rules, consistent
  with the policies established in this section, on the following
  matters only:
               (1)  acquisition by local governments or other
  appropriate entities or public dedication of access ways sufficient
  to provide adequate public ingress and egress to and from the beach
  within the area described in Subdivision (6);
               (2)  protection of the public easement from erosion or
  reduction caused by development or other activities on adjacent
  land and beach cleanup and maintenance;
               (3)  local government prohibitions of vehicular
  traffic on public beaches, provision of off-beach parking, use of
  motorized golf cart vehicles on the beach by disabled persons, and
  other minimum measures needed to mitigate for any adverse effect on
  public access and dune areas;
               (4)  imposition of beach access, user, or parking fees
  and reasonable exercises of the police power by local governments
  with respect to public beaches;
               (5)  contents and certification of beach access and use
  plans and standards for local government review of construction on
  land adjacent to and landward of public beaches, including
  procedures for expedited review of beach access and use plans under
  Section 61.015;
               (6)  construction on land adjacent to and landward of
  public beaches and lying in the area either up to the first public
  road generally parallel to the beach or to any closer public road
  not parallel to the beach, or to within 1,000 feet of mean high
  tide, whichever is greater, that affects or may affect public
  access to and use of public beaches;
               (7)  the temporary suspension under Section 61.0185 of
  enforcement of the prohibition against encroachments on and
  interferences with the public beach easement and the ability of a
  property owner to make repairs to a house while a suspension is in
  effect;
               (8)  the determination of the line of vegetation or
  natural line of vegetation;
               (9)  the factors to be considered in determining
  whether a structure, improvement, obstruction, barrier, or hazard
  on the public beach:
                     (A)  constitutes an imminent hazard to safety,
  health, or public welfare; or
                     (B)  substantially interferes with the free and
  unrestricted right of the public to enter or leave the public beach
  or traverse any part of the public beach; and
               (10)  the procedures for determining whether a
  structure is not insurable property for purposes of Section
  2210.004, Insurance Code, because of the factors listed in
  Subsection (h) of that section.
         SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.