| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
relating to the ownership and local regulation of trees and timber. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
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. |