By: Rios Ybarra H.B. No. 1213
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the use of golf carts on beaches.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 61.011(d), Natural Resources Code, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 61.011. POLICY AND RULES. (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, use of
motorized golf cart vehicles on the beach by disabled persons, 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.