BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1708

By: Hinojosa, Adam

Land & Resource Management

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill sponsor has informed the committee that Texas law currently provides exemptions from county platting requirements for land conveyed between family members to allow inter-family land transfers without triggering the costly and complex processes meant for commercial developers. However, the bill sponsor has also informed the committee that in some border counties, local officials have applied the state's model subdivision rules to classify these familial transfers as commercial developments, and this misapplication has subjected families to infrastructure mandates, permitting processes, and fees that were never intended for personal, intra-family land divisions. S.B. 1708 seeks to address this issue by clarifying that the model subdivision rules under current law do not override the existing statutory exceptions to platting requirements for the conveyance of land as a gift between persons related within the third degree of affinity or consanguinity.

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. 1708 amends the Local Government Code to provide for exceptions to county platting requirements by establishing the following:

· subdivision platting requirements applicable to a county any part of which is located within 50 miles of an international border or a county other than such a county, any part of which is located within 100 miles of an international border and that contains the majority of the area of a municipality with a population of more than 250,000, apply to a subsequent conveyance of any lot that is not a conveyance of the land as a gift between persons related to each other within the third degree by affinity or consanguinity; and

· the model subdivision rules adopted to assure that minimum standards for safe and sanitary water supply and sewer services in residential areas of political subdivisions do not supersede an exception to platting requirements under provisions relating to county regulation of subdivisions or the applicability of subdivision platting requirements applicable to such a subsequent conveyance.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2025.