By: Kolkhorst H.B. No. 1377
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1377:
By: Dutton C.S.H.B. No. 1377
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the ownership and local regulation of trees and timber.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Title 6, Natural Resources Code, is amended by
adding Chapter 154 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 154. OWNERSHIP AND LOCAL REGULATION OF TREES AND TIMBER
Sec. 154.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Governmental entity" means a political
subdivision of the state, including:
(A) a municipality; and
(B) a county.
(2) "Mitigation fee" means a fee assessed by a
municipality for the removal of a tree.
(3) "Removal of a tree" means the harvesting, cutting,
or destruction of a tree, including the damaging of a tree in a way
that will cause the death of the tree, as determined by a
governmental entity, on or before the first anniversary of the date
of the damage.
(4) "Replacement tree" means a tree that is planted to
replace a tree removed from a landowner's land.
Sec. 154.002. OWNERSHIP OF TREES AND TIMBER. A landowner
owns all trees and timber located on the landowner's land as a part
of the real property until cut or otherwise removed from the land,
unless otherwise provided by a contract, bill of sale, deed,
mortgage, deed of trust, or other legally binding document.
Sec. 154.003. LOCAL REGULATION OF TREES AND TIMBER. (a) A
governmental entity may not prohibit a landowner from trimming or
removing trees or timber located on the landowner's land.
(b) A municipality may, if authorized by other state law and
subject to the limitations of that law, assess a mitigation fee
against a landowner for the removal of a tree on the landowner's
land. A mitigation fee:
(1) must be proportional to the value of the tree
removed; and
(2) may be used only in the jurisdiction in which the
fee is collected and only for the purpose of tree planting and other
related activities.
(c) A landowner is entitled to plant a replacement tree at
the landowner's expense instead of paying a mitigation fee. A
landowner who chooses to plant a replacement tree is not required to
plant a number of replacement trees whose total diameter is greater
than the total diameter of all the trees to which the mitigation fee
would have applied.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, a municipality may not
regulate the trimming or removal of trees or timber in the
extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality.
(e) Subsections (a) and (c) do not apply to the regulation
of trees or timber within three miles of a federal military base in
active use as of September 1, 2013.
(f) Subsection (b) does not apply to a tree removed during
active agriculture, ranching, or timber operations.
(g) Subsection (d) does not apply to a municipality whose
extraterritorial jurisdiction is adjacent to or includes all or
part of a federal military base in active use as of September 1,
2013.
(h) This section does not affect the authority of a county
to regulate the cutting of trees under Section 240.909, Local
Government Code.
(i) This section does not apply to the facilities or
operations of an electric utility or a transmission and
distribution utility, as those terms are defined by Section 31.002,
Utilities Code.
Sec. 154.004. APPLICABILITY TO TREE TRIMMING OR REMOVAL IN
UTILITY RIGHT-OF-WAY. This chapter does not apply to the trimming
or removal of a tree in the easement or right-of-way of a pipeline
or utility line.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.