Recapping the 88th Texas Legislature

What It Is: This bill streamlines the approval process for development and inspections to avoid unnecessary delays, allowing for certain individuals to review development documents if a regulatory authority has not issued a decision within 15 days of submission.

Why It Matters: Development process delays are extremely costly to developers and represent a massive impediment to economic development in cities like Dallas. By allowing developers more control over their project timelines, this bill helps cities efficiently address backlogs in planning and development departments.

TREC Action and Result: Supported; Sent to Governor

What It Is: HB 1526 authorizes municipalities of more than 800,000 residents to set parkland dedication/fee/combination requirements, and sets requirements on how the dedication and/or fees must be calculated.

Why It Matters: This bill addresses the housing shortage in rapidly growing cities by limiting the amount of a site plan that must be donated as parkland or the fee-in-lieu for multifamily or hotel projects, which have dramatically risen in some cities in recent years. Additionally, the bill prohibits municipalities from imposing dedication/fee requirements on commercial uses other than multifamily or hotel and exempts municipalities that currently charge “low fees” from the new calculation requirements.

TREC Action and Result: Supported; Sent to Governor

What It Is: SB 491 would have prohibited a municipality of more than 725,000 residents from adopting or enforcing ordinances that limit building height based on proximity to a lot more than 50 feet from the building. In Dallas, this would have preempted the city’s Residential Proximity Slope (RPS) ordinance, which places limits on a building’s height based on its proximity to a residentially zoned lot.

Why It Matters: Cities have used height compatibility standards to restrict the height that developers can build to by right, which has often restricted density in Texas’ largest and fastest growing metro areas. This bill would have allowed developers to build to height restrictions based on their zoning, and not on how close their site is to a residential lot, while maintaining protections for neighborhoods, proximity to airports, historical areas, and other categories.

TREC Action and Result: Supported; Died on House Calendar

What It Is: HB 234 would have required that the purchaser of any commercial or industrial property record the sale price with its County Clerk’s office. Additionally, the bill would have created a civil penalty for failing to disclose the purchase price in an amount equal to 5 percent of the property’s sale price.

Why It Matters: By requiring sales price disclosure, this bill could have exacerbated the high property tax burden for Texas commercial and industrial property owners.

TREC Action and Result: Opposed; Died in Committee

What It Is: HB 4757 would have prohibited the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) from approving a new or amended water right authorizing an appropriation of water from Big Brown Creek or Fairfield Lake without being first approved by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission (TPWC).

Why It Matters: TPWC was a competitor to purchase privately owned property, but when the selling party rejected their non-competitive bid in favor of a full market-value bid from another private entity, TPWC attempted to use the Legislature to torpedo the deal and effectively lower the market value of the property to the point that TPWC would be the only available buyer.This bill would have set a dangerous precedent for the state to interfere in private property transactions for its own benefit, essentially utilizing the extraordinary power of eminent domain without affording any of the due process protections to the injured party statutorily required in the exercise of that power.

TREC Action and Result: Opposed; Died in Committee