83R8483 SLB-F
By: Kolkhorst 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) "Mature tree" means a tree greater than 10 inches
in girth measured 4-1/2 feet above the natural grade.
(3) "Mitigation fee" means a fee assessed by a
governmental entity for the removal of a tree.
(4) "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 on or before the first
anniversary of the date of the damage, as determined by a
governmental entity.
(5) "Replacement tree" means a tree of not less than
three inches in girth measured 4-1/2 feet above the natural grade
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 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 governmental entity 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 mature tree on the
landowner's land. A mitigation fee:
(1) must be proportional to the value of the mature
tree removed;
(2) may not exceed $100 per inch of girth of the mature
tree removed measured at 4-1/2 feet above the natural grade; and
(3) 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 girth is greater
than the total girth of all the mature 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) 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.
(f) This section does not affect the authority of a county
to regulate the cutting of trees under Section 240.909, Local
Government Code.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.