Bill Text: TX HB2623 | 2013-2014 | 83rd Legislature | Enrolled
Bill Title: Relating to the authority of certain counties and the General Land Office to temporarily close a beach or beach access point.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)
Status: (Passed) 2013-05-24 - Effective immediately [HB2623 Detail]
Download: Texas-2013-HB2623-Enrolled.html
H.B. No. 2623 |
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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; [ |
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(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. | ||
______________________________ | ______________________________ | |
President of the Senate | Speaker of the House | |
I certify that H.B. No. 2623 was passed by the House on April | ||
25, 2013, by the following vote: Yeas 135, Nays 0, 1 present, not | ||
voting. | ||
______________________________ | ||
Chief Clerk of the House | ||
I certify that H.B. No. 2623 was passed by the Senate on May | ||
9, 2013, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0. | ||
______________________________ | ||
Secretary of the Senate | ||
APPROVED: _____________________ | ||
Date | ||
_____________________ | ||
Governor |