BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2902

By: Zerwas

Land & Resource Management

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Changing municipal extraterritorial jurisdiction boundaries can cause owners and developers of planned communities to face the challenge of developing property under the building standards of multiple jurisdictions. When petitions representing the majority of property owners in a planned community are submitted to the governing body of a municipality, requesting that the municipality approve the release of the community's property from its extraterritorial jurisdiction in order to streamline the community's regulatory burden, only for the municipality's leaders to be nonresponsive, a legislative remedy becomes necessary. C.S.H.B. 2902 seeks to address a particular example of this problem by establishing provisions relating to the release of extraterritorial jurisdiction by certain general-law municipalities.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2902 amends the Local Government Code to require a general-law municipality that has a population of less than 3,000, that is located in a county with a population of more than 500,000 that is adjacent to a county with a population of more than four million and in which at least two-thirds of the residents reside within a gated community to release an area from its extraterritorial jurisdiction not later than the 10th day after the date the municipality receives a petition requesting that the area be released that is signed by at least 80 percent of the owners of real property located in the area requesting release.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2902 differs from the original by making the requirement for certain general-law municipalities to release an area from the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction on receipt of a petition signed by property owners in the area requesting the release applicable to a general-law municipality that, among other characteristics, has a population of less than 3,000, whereas the original makes that requirement applicable to a general-law municipality that, among those other characteristics, has a population of less than 2,500.