83R15637 JXC-F
By: Oliveira, Lucio III, Anderson H.B. No. 2623
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of certain counties and the General Land
Office to temporarily close a beach or beach access point.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 61.001, Natural Resources Code, is
amended by adding Subdivision (4-a) to read as follows:
(4-a) "Launch" and "space flight activities" have the
meanings assigned by Section 100A.001, Civil Practice and Remedies
Code.
SECTION 2. Section 61.011(d), Natural Resources Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(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, the use
on a public beach of a golf cart, as defined by Section 502.001,
Transportation Code, for the transportation of a person with a
physical disability, 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; and
(11) the closure of beaches for space flight
activities.
SECTION 3. Subchapter D, Chapter 61, Natural Resources
Code, is amended by adding Section 61.132 to read as follows:
Sec. 61.132. CLOSING OF BEACHES FOR SPACE FLIGHT
ACTIVITIES. (a) This section applies only to a county bordering on
the Gulf of Mexico or its tidewater limits that contains a launch
site the construction and operation of which have been approved in a
record of decision issued by the Federal Aviation Administration
following the preparation of an environmental impact statement by
that administration.
(b) A person planning to conduct a launch in a county to
which this section applies must submit to the commissioners court
proposed primary and backup launch dates for the launch.
(c) To protect the public health, safety, and welfare, the
commissioners court by order may temporarily close a beach in
reasonable proximity to the launch site or access points to the
beach in the county on a primary or backup launch date, subject to
Subsection (d).
(d) The commissioners court may not close a beach or access
points to the beach on a primary launch date consisting of any of
the following days without the approval of the land office:
(1) the Saturday or Sunday preceding Memorial Day;
(2) Memorial Day;
(3) July 4;
(4) Labor Day; or
(5) a Saturday or Sunday that is after Memorial Day but
before Labor Day.
(e) The commissioners court must comply with the county's
beach access and use plan adopted and certified under Section
61.015 and dune protection plan adopted and certified under Chapter
63 when closing a beach or access point under this section.
(f) The land office may:
(1) approve or deny a beach or access point closure
request under Subsection (d);
(2) enter into a memorandum of agreement with the
commissioners court of a county to which this section applies to
govern beach and access point closures made under this section; and
(3) adopt rules to govern beach and access point
closures made under this section.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2013.