BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1303

By: Bettencourt

Land & Resource Management

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been noted that property owners in a municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction are affected to a certain degree by municipal regulation. Concerns have been raised regarding a lack of communication and information available to the public regarding an expansion of municipal territory through an annexation and the resulting extension of a municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction. S.B. 1303 seeks to address these concerns by setting out requirements relating to maps of the actual or proposed boundaries and extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality and certain notices related to expanding the boundaries.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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

S.B. 1303 amends the Local Government Code to require a municipality to maintain a copy of its map of municipal boundaries and extraterritorial jurisdiction in a location that is easily accessible to the public, including on the municipality's website if the municipality maintains a website. The bill requires a municipality to make a copy of the map available without charge.

S.B. 1303 requires a home-rule municipality, in addition to the general requirements for maps of municipal boundaries and extraterritorial jurisdiction, to create, or contract for the creation of, and make publicly available not later than January 1, 2020, a digital map that complies with those requirements. The bill requires the digital map to be made available without charge and in a format widely used by common geographic information system (GIS) software and requires the municipality to make the digital map available on the municipality's website if the municipality maintains a website. The bill requires a home-rule municipality that does not have common GIS software to make the digital map available in any other widely used electronic format in accordance with these provisions of the bill.

S.B. 1303 requires a tier 1 home-rule municipality, before the 90th day after the date the municipality adopts or amends a municipal annexation plan, to give written notice to each property owner, as specified by the bill, in any area that would be newly included in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction as a result of the proposed annexation. The bill requires the notice to include the following information:

· a description of the area that has been included in the municipality's annexation plan;

· a statement that the completed annexation of that area will expand the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction to include all or part of the property owner's property;

· a statement of the purpose of extraterritorial jurisdiction designation; and

· a brief description of each municipal ordinance that would be applicable in the area that would be newly included in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction.

S.B. 1303 requires a tier 1 home-rule municipality proposing to annex an area under a municipal annexation plan or to annex an area exempted from such a plan to publish notice of the requisite annexation hearings in a newspaper of general circulation in any area that would be newly included in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction by the expansion of the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction resulting from the proposed annexation. The bill requires the home‑rule municipality's notice for each hearing, if applicable, to include the following information:

· a statement that the completed annexation of the area will expand the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction;

· a description of the area that would be newly included in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction;

· a statement of the purpose of extraterritorial jurisdiction designation; and

· a brief description of each municipal ordinance that would be applicable in the area that would be newly included in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction.

S.B. 1303 requires a tier 1 home-rule municipality, before the 90th day after the date the municipality adopts or amends a municipal annexation plan or before the municipality may institute annexation proceedings for an area exempted from such a plan, to create, or contract for the creation of, and make publicly available a digital map that identifies the area proposed for annexation and any area that would be newly included in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction as a result of the proposed annexation. The bill requires the digital map to be made available without charge and in a format widely used by common GIS software or in any other widely used electronic format if the municipality does not have common GIS software. The bill requires the municipality to make the digital map available on the municipality's website if the municipality maintains a website.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.