BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

C.S.H.B. 1377

By: Kolkhorst

Urban Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

Interested parties contend that there is a growing trend among cities to ignore private property rights by placing unreasonable restrictions on property owners, including prohibiting the cutting down of privately owned trees and requiring payments to the city that far exceed the value of the trees in exchange for allowing the trees to be cut. C.S.H.B. 1377 seeks to remedy this issue.

 

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. 1377 amends the Natural Resources Code to establish that a landowner owns all trees and timber located on the landowner's land as a part of the real property until cut or otherwise removed from the land, unless otherwise provided by a contract, bill of sale, deed, mortgage, deed of trust, or other legally binding document. The bill prohibits a governmental entity from prohibiting a landowner from trimming or removing trees or timber located on the landowner's land and specifies that such prohibition is not applicable to the regulation of trees or timber within three miles of a federal military base in active use as of September 1, 2013.  

 

C.S.H.B. 1377 authorizes a municipality, if authorized by other state law and subject to the limitations of that law, to assess a mitigation fee against a landowner for the removal of a tree on the landowner's land, other than a tree removed during active agriculture, ranching, or timber operations. The bill requires a mitigation fee to be proportional to the value of the tree removed and restricts the use of the fee to the jurisdiction in which the fee is collected and for the purpose of tree planting and other related activities.

 

C.S.H.B. 1377 entitles a landowner to plant a replacement tree at the landowner's expense instead of paying a mitigation fee. The bill establishes that a landowner who chooses to plant a replacement tree is not required to plant a number of replacement trees whose total diameter is greater than the total diameter of all the trees to which the mitigation fee would have applied. The bill specifies that these provisions are not applicable to the regulation of trees or timber within three miles of a federal military base in active use as of September 1, 2013.

 

C.S.H.B. 1377 prohibits a municipality from regulating the trimming or removal of trees or timber in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction and exempts from such prohibition a municipality whose extraterritorial jurisdiction is adjacent to or includes all or part of a federal military base in active use as of September 1, 2013.

 

C.S.H.B. 1377 establishes that its provisions relating to local regulation of trees and timber do not affect the authority of a county with a population of 50,000 or less that borders the Gulf of Mexico and in which is located at least one state park and one national wildlife refuge to regulate the clear-cutting of live oak trees in the county's unincorporated area, and do not apply to the facilities or operations of an electric utility or a transmission and distribution utility. 

 

C.S.H.B. 1377 makes its provisions inapplicable to the trimming or removal of a tree in the easement or right-of-way of a pipeline or utility line.

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

September 1, 2013.

 

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

 

While C.S.H.B. 1377 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

 

INTRODUCED

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

SECTION 1.  Title 6, Natural Resources Code, is amended by adding Chapter 154 to read as follows:

CHAPTER 154.  OWNERSHIP AND LOCAL REGULATION OF TREES AND TIMBER

Sec. 154.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:

(1)  "Governmental entity" means a political subdivision of the state, including:

(A)  a municipality; and

(B)  a county.

(2)  "Mature tree" means a tree greater than 10 inches in girth measured 4-1/2 feet above the natural grade.

(3)  "Mitigation fee" means a fee assessed by a governmental entity for the removal of a tree.

(4)  "Removal of a tree" means the harvesting, cutting, or destruction of a tree, including the damaging of a tree in a way that will cause the death of the tree on or before the first anniversary of the date of the damage, as determined by a governmental entity.

(5)  "Replacement tree" means a tree of not less than three inches in girth measured 4-1/2 feet above the natural grade that is planted to replace a tree removed from a landowner's land.

 

Sec. 154.002.  OWNERSHIP OF TREES AND TIMBER.  A landowner owns all trees and timber located on the landowner's land as real property until cut or otherwise removed from the land, unless otherwise provided by a contract, bill of sale, deed, mortgage, deed of trust, or other legally binding document.

 

Sec. 154.003.  LOCAL REGULATION OF TREES AND TIMBER.  (a) A governmental entity may not prohibit a landowner from trimming or removing trees or timber located on the landowner's land.

(b)  A governmental entity may, if authorized by other state law and subject to the limitations of that law, assess a mitigation fee against a landowner for the removal of a mature tree on the landowner's land.  A mitigation fee:

(1)  must be proportional to the value of the mature tree removed;

(2)  may not exceed $100 per inch of girth of the mature tree removed measured at 4-1/2 feet above the natural grade; and

(3)  may be used only in the jurisdiction in which the fee is collected and only for the purpose of tree planting and other related activities.

(c)  A landowner is entitled to plant a replacement tree at the landowner's expense instead of paying a mitigation fee. A landowner who chooses to plant a replacement tree is not required to plant a number of replacement trees whose total girth is greater than the total girth of all the mature trees to which the mitigation fee would have applied.

(d)  Notwithstanding any other law, a municipality may not regulate the trimming or removal of trees or timber in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(e)  Subsection (d) does not apply to a municipality whose extraterritorial jurisdiction is adjacent to or includes all or part of a federal military base in active use as of September 1, 2013.

(f)  This section does not affect the authority of a county to regulate the cutting of trees under Section 240.909, Local Government Code.

 

SECTION 1.  Title 6, Natural Resources Code, is amended by adding Chapter 154 to read as follows:

CHAPTER 154.  OWNERSHIP AND LOCAL REGULATION OF TREES AND TIMBER

Sec. 154.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:

(1)  "Governmental entity" means a political subdivision of the state, including:

(A)  a municipality; and

(B)  a county.

 

 

 

(2)  "Mitigation fee" means a fee assessed by a municipality for the removal of a tree.

 

(3)  "Removal of a tree" means the harvesting, cutting, or destruction of a tree, including the damaging of a tree in a way that will cause the death of the tree, as determined by a governmental entity, on or before the first anniversary of the date of the damage.

(4)  "Replacement tree" means a tree that is planted to replace a tree removed from a landowner's land.

 

 

 

Sec. 154.002.  OWNERSHIP OF TREES AND TIMBER.  A landowner owns all trees and timber located on the landowner's land as a part of the real property until cut or otherwise removed from the land, unless otherwise provided by a contract, bill of sale, deed, mortgage, deed of trust, or other legally binding document.

 

Sec. 154.003.  LOCAL REGULATION OF TREES AND TIMBER.  (a)  A governmental entity may not prohibit a landowner from trimming or removing trees or timber located on the landowner's land.

 

(b)  A municipality may, if authorized by other state law and subject to the limitations of that law, assess a mitigation fee against a landowner for the removal of a tree on the landowner's land.  A mitigation fee:

 

(1)  must be proportional to the value of the tree removed; and

 

 

 

(2)  may be used only in the jurisdiction in which the fee is collected and only for the purpose of tree planting and other related activities.

(c)  A landowner is entitled to plant a replacement tree at the landowner's expense instead of paying a mitigation fee.  A landowner who chooses to plant a replacement tree is not required to plant a number of replacement trees whose total diameter is greater than the total diameter of all the trees to which the mitigation fee would have applied.

(d)  Notwithstanding any other law, a municipality may not regulate the trimming or removal of trees or timber in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality.

(e)  Subsections (a) and (c) do not apply to the regulation of trees or timber within three miles of a federal military base in active use as of September 1, 2013.

(f)  Subsection (b) does not apply to a tree removed during active agriculture, ranching, or timber operations.

(g)  Subsection (d) does not apply to a municipality whose extraterritorial jurisdiction is adjacent to or includes all or part of a federal military base in active use as of September 1, 2013.

(h)  This section does not affect the authority of a county to regulate the cutting of trees under Section 240.909, Local Government Code.

(i)  This section does not apply to the facilities or operations of an electric utility or a transmission and distribution utility, as those terms are defined by Section 31.002, Utilities Code.

Sec. 154.004.  APPLICABILITY TO TREE TRIMMING OR REMOVAL IN UTILITY RIGHT-OF-WAY.  This chapter does not apply to the trimming or removal of a tree in the easement or right-of-way of a pipeline or utility line.

 

SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.

 

SECTION 2. Same as introduced version.