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SECTION 2. Subchapter Z,
Chapter 240, Local Government Code, is amended by adding Section 240.903 to
read as follows:
Sec. 240.903. CLOSING OF GULF BEACHES FOR SPACE FLIGHT ACTIVITIES.
(a) In this section:
(1) "Beach" has the meaning assigned by Section 61.012,
Natural Resources Code.
(2) "Launch"
and "space flight activities" have the meanings assigned by
Section 100A.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
(b) This section applies
only to a county bordering on the Gulf of Mexico or its tidewater limits in which the Federal Aviation Administration has
approved a launch site for space flight activities.
(c) A person may not conduct a launch unless:
(1) the person submits to the commissioners court a written request to approve a proposed
primary and backup launch date for the launch and
provides a copy of the request to the General Land Office:
(A) not later than the 14th day before the proposed primary launch
date if the proposed primary launch date is not on a day described by
Subsection (d); or
(B) not later than the 28th day before the proposed primary launch
date if the proposed primary launch date is on a day described by
Subsection (d);
(2) the commissioners court approves a primary and backup launch
date for the launch; and
(3) the launch takes place on the approved primary or backup launch
date.
(d) The commissioners
court may not approve a primary launch
date consisting of any of the following days without the approval of the
General Land Office:
(1) the Saturday or
Sunday preceding Memorial Day;
(2) Memorial Day;
(3) July 4;
(4) Labor Day;
(5) a Saturday after
Memorial Day but before Labor Day; or
(6) a Sunday after
Memorial Day but before Labor Day.
(e) The commissioners court shall submit a written request to
approve a primary launch date on a day described by Subsection (d) to the
General Land Office not later than the 14th day before the proposed primary
launch date. The request must include a justification for conducting the
launch on the specified date.
(f) The General Land Office shall approve a request submitted under
Subsection (e) if the office determines that there is a reasonable
justification for conducting the launch on the specified date. Grounds for
making such a determination include:
(1) technical requirements;
(2) significant adverse business consequences of not conducting the
launch on the specified date; or
(3) regulatory requirements.
(g) The General Land Office must approve or deny a request submitted
under Subsection (e) not later than the third day after the date the office
receives the request. If the General Land Office does not respond to the
request on or before the third day after the date the office receives the
request, the office is considered to have approved the request.
(h) The commissioners court may approve a backup launch date of any
day without the approval of the General Land Office.
(i) To protect the public
health, safety, and welfare, the commissioners court by order may
temporarily close a beach in reasonable proximity to the launch site or
access points to the beach in the county on a primary or backup launch date
approved under this section.
(j) The commissioners
court must comply with the county's beach access and use plan adopted and
certified under Section 61.015, Natural Resources Code, and dune protection
plan adopted and certified under Chapter 63, Natural Resources Code, when
closing a beach or access point under this section.
(k) The commissioners court may enter into a
memorandum of understanding with the General
Land Office as necessary to comply with the requirements of this section.
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SECTION 1. Section 61.001,
Natural Resources Code, is amended by adding Subdivision (4-a) to read as
follows:
(4-a) "Launch"
and "space flight activities" have the meanings assigned by
Section 100A.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
SECTION 3. Subchapter D,
Chapter 61, Natural Resources Code, is amended by adding Section 61.132 to
read as follows:
Sec. 61.132. CLOSING OF BEACHES FOR SPACE FLIGHT ACTIVITIES.
(a) This section applies only to a county bordering on the Gulf of Mexico
or its tidewater limits that contains a
launch site the construction and operation of which have been approved in a
record of decision issued by the Federal Aviation Administration following
the preparation of an environmental impact statement by that
administration.
(b) A person planning to conduct a launch in a county to which this section applies must
submit to the commissioners court proposed primary and backup launch dates
for the launch.
(d) The commissioners
court may not close a beach or access points
to the beach on a primary launch date consisting of any of the
following days without the approval of the land office:
(1) the Saturday or
Sunday preceding Memorial Day;
(2) Memorial Day;
(3) July 4;
(4) Labor Day; or
(5) a Saturday or Sunday
that is after Memorial Day but before Labor Day.
(c) To protect the public
health, safety, and welfare, the commissioners court by order may
temporarily close a beach in reasonable proximity to the launch site or
access points to the beach in the county on a primary or backup launch date, subject to Subsection (d).
(e) The commissioners
court must comply with the county's beach access and use plan adopted and
certified under Section 61.015 and dune protection plan adopted and
certified under Chapter 63 when closing a beach or access point under this
section.
(f) The land office may:
(1) approve or deny a beach or access point closure request under
Subsection (d);
(2) enter into a memorandum
of agreement with the commissioners court of
a county to which this section applies to govern beach and access point
closures made under this section; and
(3) adopt rules to govern beach and access point closures made under
this section.
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No
equivalent provision.
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SECTION 2. Section
61.011(d), 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, the use on a public beach of a golf cart, as defined by Section
502.001, Transportation Code, for the transportation of a person with a
physical disability, 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; and
(11) the closure of
beaches for space flight activities.
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