By: Coleman H.B. No. 3709
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
Relating to certain charitable corporations granted eminent domain
power by Section 6(b), Chapter 178 (S.B. 289), Acts of the 56th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1959 (Article 3183b-1, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes), repealing the power of eminent domain and
condemnation of residential property adjacent or contiguous to such
medical center, for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, and
operating health care, educational and support entities as a part
of the medical center or related facilities; and amending Article
3183b-1 to provide for legal remedies and measures to rectify past
condemnation practices within residential neighborhoods.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Title 51, Art. 3183b-1, Section 2, Texas Revised
Civil Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 2.
(a) EMINENT DOMAIN POWER. Any charitable corporation as
defined in Section 1 of this Act shall have the power of eminent
domain and condemnation for the purpose of acquiring lands adjacent
or contiguous (whether or not separated by public thoroughfares) to
such medical center upon which are to be constructed, maintained,
and operated as a part of the medical center, facilities dedicated
to medical care, teaching, and research for the public welfare,
including ancillary or service activities generally and
customarily recognized as essential to such facilities in a medical
center.
(b) RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY LIMITATIONS.
(1) Definitions.
(A) "Deed restricted residential property" shall
mean property governed by existing deed restrictions which restrict
the property to residential use within a subdivision, or within a
section of a subdivision. Residential use shall include
townhouses, condominiums, and multifamily residential housing
included as a section or component of a residential subdivision.
(B) "Single family residential property" shall
have the meaning defined by the generally-applicable municipal
land-use ordinance, and which is located in a predominately
single-family residential subdivision or established residential
area, without regard to whether deed restrictions are in force.
"Single family residential property" shall include townhouses,
condominiums, and multifamily residential housing generally
considered to be part of the predominately single-family
residential subdivision or the established residential area. A
single family residential property owners association in a non-deed
restricted area may be formed pursuant to the procedures prescribed
in Article, which shall entitle it to exercise all of the rights of
a property owners' association under the Property Code
notwithstanding the lack of deed restrictions. A management
district more than fifty (50) percent of whose voters are bona fide
resident landowners may also qualify as a property owners
association. In any election required or permitted by the Property
Code, legal or beneficial owners of more than one lot in a property
owners association election shall have the right to cast no more
than one vote.
(C) "Residential area" shall mean a deed
restricted residential property subdivision, or a single family
residential property area, or a combination of such areas.
(D) "Blockbusting activity" shall mean avoidable
actions or omissions to act by a Medical Center Condemnation Entity
or its members, including without limitation actions having the
effect of increasing traffic, noise or light intrusion, or similar
actions or omissions by investors, including actions involving
demolition of or allowing improved property to become blighted,
whether in anticipation of sale to a Medical Center Condemnation
Entity or its members or otherwise, and which are intended, or which
will foreseeably cause, a substantial reduction of residential-use
property values in a residential area.
(E) "Medical Center Condemning Entity" shall
mean any entity having the power of eminent domain under Section 1,
or any entity which has the authority to purchase, lease, or
otherwise use or occupy, property acquired by a Medical Center
Condemnation Entity.
(F) "Future use" shall mean property acquired in
a residential area through private contract or by formal
condemnation proceedings by a Medical Center Condemnation Entity or
its members, for which the Medical Center Condemnation Entity
member has no plan for specific, immediate use. If substantial
construction of permanent medical facilities designed to deliver
health care for the use and benefit of the public, excluding surface
parking not related to the medical facilities, has not commenced on
such property within two years of its acquisition, the property
shall be deemed to be property acquired for future use.
(G) "Condemnation" shall mean a taking through
formal court proceedings, or any acquisition by a Medical Center
Condemning Entity which could have, at the time of the acquisition,
initiated court proceedings for condemnation. It shall be
irrelevant whether the Medical Center Condemning Entity shall have
overtly threatened condemnation or not.
(2) NO CONDEMNATION OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY. The
power of eminent domain and condemnation shall not apply to any
residential area, nor may a corporation defined in Section 1 of this
Act otherwise acquire residential area property, directly or
through an agent or trustee, for future use, nor may it acquire
residential property whose value has been materially diminished by
blockbusting activity. Nothing herein shall limit any rights that
may be expressly granted in current residential deed restrictions
that authorize express waiver, amendment, or variances with respect
to the restrictions, or as may be determined by the "Property
owners' association" as defined in Section 202.001 of the Property
Code pursuant to applicable provisions of the Property Code or to a
residential property owners association formed in a non-deed
restricted area. A Medical Center Condemnation Entity may not
challenge the validity of the deed restrictions in a condemnation
proceeding, or in contemplation of condemnation.
(3) BLOCKBUSTING PROHIBITED. No Medical Center
Condemnation Entity or its members may purchase property, by
private contract or otherwise, in a residential area whose property
values have been substantially diminished by blockbusting
activity. Residential area property held for future use shall,
within a reasonable time not to exceed one year, be sold by the
Medical Center Condemnation Entity to a purchaser who shall
covenant that the property will be restored to its former status as
a bona fide single family residential property, or, if applicable,
reintegrated into its original deed restricted residential
property subdivision.
(4) REMEDIATION REQUIRED IN CERTAIN CASES. Parking
facilities constructed on land owned by a Medical Center Condemning
Entity that was acquired after January 1, 2004 within a residential
area, or which is located directly adjacent to a residential area,
shall be required to remediate the effects of such acquisition.
Such remediation shall include:
(A) the installation of louvers, screens,
panels, or other permanent fixtures that reduce the emission of
light from parking garages to the same level of light emission from
the windows of office or hospital facilities of the Medical Center
Condemnation Entity or its members that were constructed after
January 1, 2004;
(B) landscaping with large evergreen trees and
evergreen plants to mitigate, to the maximum practical extent, the
adverse property value impact of the parking facilities upon the
adjoining residential area; and
(C) sound reduction measures to mitigate, to the
maximum practical extent, the noise emitted from such facilities,
as well as from noise generated by mechanical systems erected in
conjunction with such parking garages on the formerly residential
property.
(c) COSTS OF LITIGATION. A property owners association,
individual landowners who are actually in residence in a single
family residence who prevails in any suit seeking damages or
equitable relief arising under this Subsection 2(b) shall recover
its costs of litigation, including reasonable attorneys fees,
witness and other litigation expenses, and costs of court.
(1) Any property owners association from the affected
residential area, or bordering on the residential area, and any
management district more than percent of whose voters are bona fide
landowner residents, shall be a proper party to any proceeding
under this Act.
(2) The Court may, in its discretion,
(A) award, periodically during the pendency of
the litigation, interim costs of litigation to the qualified
landowners or property owners associations, which award shall be
final and not subject to repayment; and
(B) award costs of litigation to landowners or
property owners association in any case in which the litigation
brought about, directly or indirectly, a beneficial result to the
deed restricted residential area, adjoining residential areas, or
to the public interest, notwithstanding which party may have
technically prevailed on the merits.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.