Bill Text: TX HB1643 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Comm Sub
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Relating to abatement of public nuisances on certain undeveloped land; amending provisions subject to a criminal penalty.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2015-06-15 - Effective immediately [HB1643 Detail]
Download: Texas-2015-HB1643-Comm_Sub.html
Bill Title: Relating to abatement of public nuisances on certain undeveloped land; amending provisions subject to a criminal penalty.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2015-06-15 - Effective immediately [HB1643 Detail]
Download: Texas-2015-HB1643-Comm_Sub.html
By: Riddle (Senate Sponsor - Creighton) | H.B. No. 1643 | |
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 2015; | ||
May 5, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on | ||
Intergovernmental Relations; May 18, 2015, reported favorably by | ||
the following vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 18, 2015, sent to printer.) | ||
COMMITTEE VOTE | ||
YeaNayAbsentPNV | ||
LucioX | ||
BettencourtX | ||
CampbellX | ||
GarciaX | ||
MenéndezX | ||
NicholsX | ||
TaylorofGalvestonX | ||
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relating to abatement of public nuisances on certain undeveloped | ||
land; amending provisions subject to a criminal penalty. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Section 343.002, Health and Safety Code, is | ||
amended by adding Subdivision (10-a) and amending Subdivision (11) | ||
to read as follows: | ||
(10-a) "Undeveloped land" means land in a natural, | ||
primitive state that lacks improvements, infrastructure, or | ||
utilities and that is located in an unincorporated area at least | ||
5,000 feet outside the boundaries of a home-rule municipality. | ||
(11) "Weeds" means all rank and uncultivated vegetable | ||
growth or matter that: | ||
(A) has grown to more than 36 inches in height; or | ||
(B) creates [ |
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likely to attract or harbor mosquitoes, [ |
||
rodents, vermin, or other disease-carrying pests, regardless of the | ||
height of the weeds. | ||
SECTION 2. Section 343.011, Health and Safety Code, is | ||
amended by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (d-1) to | ||
read as follows: | ||
(c) A public nuisance is: | ||
(1) keeping, storing, or accumulating refuse on | ||
premises in a neighborhood unless the refuse is entirely contained | ||
in a closed receptacle; | ||
(2) keeping, storing, or accumulating rubbish, | ||
including newspapers, abandoned vehicles, refrigerators, stoves, | ||
furniture, tires, and cans, on premises in a neighborhood or within | ||
300 feet of a public street for 10 days or more, unless the rubbish | ||
or object is completely enclosed in a building or is not visible | ||
from a public street; | ||
(3) maintaining premises in a manner that creates an | ||
unsanitary condition likely to attract or harbor mosquitoes, | ||
rodents, vermin, or other disease-carrying pests; | ||
(4) allowing weeds to grow on premises in a | ||
neighborhood if the weeds are located within 300 feet of another | ||
residence or commercial establishment; | ||
(5) maintaining a building in a manner that is | ||
structurally unsafe or constitutes a hazard to safety, health, or | ||
public welfare because of inadequate maintenance, unsanitary | ||
conditions, dilapidation, obsolescence, disaster, damage, or | ||
abandonment or because it constitutes a fire hazard; | ||
(6) maintaining on abandoned and unoccupied property | ||
in a neighborhood a swimming pool that is not protected with: | ||
(A) a fence that is at least four feet high and | ||
that has a latched and locked gate; and | ||
(B) a cover over the entire swimming pool that | ||
cannot be removed by a child; | ||
(7) maintaining on any property in a neighborhood in a | ||
county with a population of more than 1.1 million a swimming pool | ||
that is not protected with: | ||
(A) a fence that is at least four feet high and | ||
that has a latched gate that cannot be opened by a child; or | ||
(B) a cover over the entire swimming pool that | ||
cannot be removed by a child; | ||
(8) maintaining a flea market in a manner that | ||
constitutes a fire hazard; | ||
(9) discarding refuse or creating a hazardous visual | ||
obstruction on: | ||
(A) county-owned land; or | ||
(B) land or easements owned or held by a special | ||
district that has the commissioners court of the county as its | ||
governing body; | ||
(10) discarding refuse on the smaller of: | ||
(A) the area that spans 20 feet on each side of a | ||
utility line; or | ||
(B) the actual span of the utility easement; | ||
(11) filling or blocking a drainage easement, failing | ||
to maintain a drainage easement, maintaining a drainage easement in | ||
a manner that allows the easement to be clogged with debris, | ||
sediment, or vegetation, or violating an agreement with the county | ||
to improve or maintain a drainage easement; | ||
(12) discarding refuse on property that is not | ||
authorized for that activity; or | ||
(13) surface discharge from an on-site sewage disposal | ||
system as defined by Section 366.002. | ||
(d-1) This subsection applies only to a county with a | ||
population of 3.3 million or more and only in an unincorporated area | ||
in the county that is at least 5,000 feet outside the boundaries of | ||
a home-rule municipality. Subsections (c)(3) and (4) apply only to | ||
undeveloped land in the county for which: | ||
(1) a condition on that land has been found to cause a | ||
public nuisance under those provisions in the preceding year; and | ||
(2) a finding of public nuisance could have been | ||
applied to that condition when the condition first occurred. | ||
SECTION 3. 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, 2015. | ||
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