House Land & Resource Management Hearing Wednesday, April 8th

The House Land & Resource Management Committee has scheduled the following county land use regulation bills for public hearing on Wednesday, April 8th at 8 am in E2.012 at the Capitol: HB 2606 by Hunter, HB 4175 by Bolton, and HB 4262 by Rodriguez.

HB 2606 would grant Aransas County zoning authority within 2 miles of recreational areas. Noncompliance would be considered a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.

HB 4175 would allow Travis County to adopt buffer zone regulations of any distance between "industry" and any land use they deem appropriate to protect. Noncompliance would be considered a misdemeanor punishable by fines of up to $1,000 per day.

HB 4262 would grant both Bexar County (in cooperation with the City of San Antonio) and Travis County (in cooperation with the City of Austin) zoning authority in the ETJ. This bill would also grant these joint zoning commissions authority to regulate the extraction and use of groundwater. Noncompliance would be considered a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.

TLC will testify against these bills.

HB 4175's companion in the Senate, SB 2451, and HB 4262's companion, SB 2202, are both authored by Senator Wentworth and have been referred to the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee, of which Wentworth is a member, but have not yet been scheduled for a hearing.