HBA-CBW H.B. 2340 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2340
By: Salinas
Land & Resource Management
4/17/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Counties are finding it difficult to provide infrastructure, including
water, sewer service, roads, and fire and police protection to persons
purchasing parcels of land within subdivisions exempt from county
subdivision platting requirements.  In some cases, developers purchase land
along existing county roads and subdivide it into properties with highway
frontages, thereby eliminating the need for access roads since the land can
be directly accessed from the county road. Often, the parcels of land
consist of 10.1 acres since the law allows for lots 10-acres or larger to
be developed and marketed without the developer having to meet county
subdivision platting requirements.  As a result, a large parcel of land
with one owner fronting a county road is transformed into multiple parcels
of land with multiple owners to whom the county must provide services.   

Land sold through the Veterans' Land Board program (program) is exempted
from platting requirements for subdivisions if all of the lots of the
subdivision are sold to veterans through the program. The exemption may
have created a loophole for developers  to subdivide  tracts of land,
market them to veterans, and then sell the subdivided tracts of land to
non-veterans.  House Bill 2340 increases from 10 acres to 25 acres the
minimum acreage necessary to qualify for a subdivision platting exemption
and excepts  any subdivided tract of land owned by the veterans' land fund
from plat requirements unless the subdivision lays out part of the tract as
streets, alleys, squares, parks, or other parts for public use or use by
certain purchases or owners. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 2340 amends the Local Government Code  to provide that a county
may not require the owner of a tract of land located outside the limits of
a municipality who divides the tract to have a plat of the subdivision
prepared if all of the lots are more than 25 acres, rather than 10 acres.
The bill also excepts a subdivision of any tract of land owned by the
veterans' land fund from county subdivision platting requirements unless
the subdivision lays out a part of the tract as streets, alleys, squares,
parks, or other parts for public use or use by certain purchasers or
owners.  The bill repeals the provision prohibiting a county from requiring
the owner of a tract of land located outside the limits of a municipality
to have a plat of the subdivision of a tract prepared if all the lots are
sold to veterans through the Veterans' Land Board program. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.