VERNON'S TEXAS CIVIL STATUTES
TITLE 28. CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES
CHAPTER 1. CITIES AND TOWNS
Art. 973c. Exclusion of property from certain water districts
Definitions
Sec. 1. As used in this Act:
(1) "Urban property" means land that has been subdivided into town
lots, or town lots and blocks, or small parcels of the same general
nature of town lots, or town blocks and lots, designed, intended, or
suitable for residential or other nonagricultural purposes, as
distinguished from farm acreage, including streets, alleys,
parkways, parks, and railroad property and rights-of-way within
that subdivided land and that is in a subdivision that is within the
corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction of a city that
has subdivision approval jurisdiction under the Municipal
Annexation Act (Article 970a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), or
Chapter 231, Acts of the 40th Legislature, Regular Session, 1927
(Article 974a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), and for which a plat
or map of the subdivision has been filed and recorded in the office
of the county clerk of the county in which the subdivision or any
part of the subdivision is located.
(2) "District" means any district or authority created under
Article III, Sections 52(b)(1) and (2), or Article XVI, Section 59,
of the Texas Constitution now existing or hereafter created for the
principal purpose of, or principally engaged in, furnishing water
for the irrigation of agricultural lands.
Exclusion of Urban Property
Sec. 2. Urban property located within the boundaries of a district
may be excluded from the district by the board of directors in the
manner and on the conditions provided by this Act. Urban property
may be excluded only after the following have been paid to the
district:
(1) all taxes, assessments, and other lawful charges of the
district accrued on the property to be excluded, together with all
lawful interest and penalties accrued on those taxes, assessments,
and charges; and
(2) the proportionate part of the outstanding bonded indebtedness
or indebtedness in connection with a loan from an authorized agency
of the United States for which the property proposed to be excluded
is liable, as determined under this Act; and
(3) agreement on a reasonable determined amount to be paid by the
city or other supplier of potable water to compensate the district
for loss of revenue occasioned by the said exclusion.
Application for Exclusion
Sec. 3. (a) The owner or owners of urban property included within
the boundaries of a district and subject to taxation by the
district, and on which all taxes, assessments, and other lawful
charges, and penalties and interest, that have accrued to the
district have been paid, may make written sworn application to the
district to exclude that property from the district.
(b) The application must:
(1) include a sworn acknowledgement by the owner or owners of the
property;
(2) describe the property to be excluded by identifying the lot or
block number of the subdivision and the name or designation of the
subdivision as shown on the recorded plat of the subdivision, or by
some other method of identification; and
(3) state that the property is used or intended to be used for the
purposes for which it was subdivided, and that the property is not
used or intended to be used, in whole or in part, for agricultural
purposes.
(c) A correct copy of the recorded map or plat of the subdivision
must accompany the application and must clearly delineate the part
of the subdivision, if less than the whole, to be excluded from the
district.
(d) The applicant shall also furnish to the district evidence
satisfactory to, or required by, the board of directors of the
applicant's ownership of the property proposed to be excluded, and
of the right of the applicant to have the property excluded from the
district.
Consideration of Application
Sec. 4. (a) As soon as practicable after the filing of the
application, the board of directors of the district shall consider
the application and inquire into all the facts relating to the
application considered by the board to be necessary to a
determination of whether a public hearing on the application should
be held.
(b) After consideration and investigation, if the board finds that
all taxes, assessments, and charges of the district on the
property, and interest and penalties on those amounts, due to the
district up to the date of the filing of the application, have been
paid, that the property described in the application is owned by the
applicant, is urban property, and is not used or intended to be used
for agricultural purposes but will require a source of treated
potable water from the city in which the subdivision is located, and
that the exclusion of the property will not cut off the district or
its facilities from ready and convenient access to other land
remaining in the district for irrigation or other district
purposes, the board shall pass an order approving further
consideration of the application. If the board is unable to make
any one of these findings, it shall adopt a resolution rejecting the
application, and the resolution of the board rejecting the
application is final and not subject to review by any other body,
tribunal, or authority.
(c) If the board approves further consideration of the application,
it shall proceed to determine the proportionate amount of the
bonded or contractual indebtedness for which the property to be
excluded is liable as provided by Subsection (d) of this section.
(d) If the district has outstanding bonded indebtedness, the board
shall obtain from the chief appraiser a certified copy of the
appraised value of all the property to be excluded for the five
years immediately preceding the year in which the application is
filed, as shown by the tax rolls of the district, and the appraised
value of all taxable property in the district according to the most
recent tax rolls of the district. The part of the total outstanding
bonded indebtedness of the district to be paid by the applicant as a
condition precedent to the exclusion of the property is that
proportion of the indebtedness, including unpaid interest computed
to the date of the order, that the appraised value of the property
to be excluded bears to the appraised value of all taxable property
in the district according to the most recent tax rolls. If the
district has contractual or other indebtedness being repaid on the
benefit tax basis, the board shall obtain from the appropriate
records the manner in which the tax is assessed, and from those
records the district shall calculate the part of the total
outstanding indebtedness of the district remaining to be paid
attributable to the property to be excluded. The order of the board
approving further consideration of the application also shall state
the amounts required to be paid by Section 2 of this Act as a
condition of the exclusion of the property.
Further Proceedings on Application
Sec. 5. The order of the board approving further consideration of
the application has no force or effect, and no further proceeding
may be held on the application unless the applicant, within 20 days
after adoption of the order or within a period of up to 30 days after
adoption of the order as ordered by the board, deposits with the
district the amounts due under Section 2 of this Act.
Notice and Hearing
Sec. 6. (a) If the deposit is made within the time provided by
Section 5 of this Act, the board shall set the application for
public hearing to be held at the regular office of the district not
less than 15 nor more than 30 days after the date of the hearing
order.
(b) The board shall have notice of the hearing posted in a
conspicuous place in the office of the district and at the
courthouse of the county in which the property proposed to be
excluded is situated.
Resolution Excluding Urban Property
Sec. 7. (a) If, as a result of such hearing, the board of directors
determines and finds that the owners of a majority in acreage of the
urban property do not desire irrigation of that property, or that
the urban property is not used or intended to be used for
agricultural purposes, the board of directors shall adopt a
resolution setting forth that determination and those findings and
shall exclude the urban property or the part of the urban property
to which the determination and findings are made. If any canals,
ditches, pipelines, pumps, or other facilities of the district are
located on land excluded in the resolution, the exclusion does not
affect or interfere with any rights that the district might have to
maintain and continue operation of the facilities as located for
the purpose of servicing land remaining in the district.
(b) A copy of the resolution excluding urban property from the
district certified to and acknowledged by the secretary of the
board of directors shall be recorded by the district in the deed
records in the county in which the excluded property is located as
evidence of the exclusion.
(c) On the passage of the resolution the property excluded does not
constitute a part of the district, the owner of the property has no
further liability to the district or for any bonded or other
indebtedness of the district, and is not subject to further
taxation by the district.
(d) If the board determines from the hearing that for any reason the
application should not be granted, it shall adopt a resolution
rejecting the application, and the deposit made by the applicant is
subject to withdrawal by the applicant or on the board's order.
Water Rights
Sec. 8. After the district excludes land from its boundaries that
lies within the corporate boundaries or extraterritorial
jurisdiction of any city, the city or other municipal supplier who
proposes to serve the land with a potable water supply may petition
the district to convert the proportionate water rights previously
allocated for the land from irrigation use rights to municipal use
rights for the use and benefit of the city or other municipal
supplier. The district shall compute the proportionate water
rights available and shall proceed with appropriate administrative
proceedings to convert the irrigation use rights to municipal use
rights. However, the city or other municipal supplier shall
deposit with the district the amount that the district estimates
will be its reasonable expenses and attorney's fees incurred in
those administrative proceedings before the district is obligated
to initiate the administrative proceedings. On approval of the
conversion by the Texas Water Commission, the water shall be
delivered to the city or other municipal supplier by the district in
the manner those entities may agree to under the Water Code.
Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 707, Sec. 1, eff. June 14, 1985.
Art. 974d-41. Validation of governmental acts and proceedings of
municipalities of more than 1.5 million
Application
Sec. 1. This article applies to any municipality having a
population of 1.5 million or more.
Proceedings Validated
Sec. 2. The governmental acts and proceedings of a municipality
relating to a bond election that was held before December 1, 1991,
and at which the ballot proposition was approved by more than 60
percent of the voters voting on the proposition are validated as of
the dates they occurred. The validation includes the preparation
and wording of the ballot proposition, any action taken by the
municipality in calling and holding the bond election, and any
other action taken by the municipality before the effective date of
this article in connection with the issuance of any bonds approved
in the bond election. The acts and proceedings may not be held
invalid because they were not performed in accordance with law. A
municipality may take any further action or conduct any further
proceeding necessary to complete the issuance of the bonds approved
at the bond election, and, when issued, the bonds are valid and
binding obligations of the municipality in accordance with the
terms of the bonds.
Effect on Litigation
Sec. 3. This article does not apply to any matter that on the
effective date of this article has been held invalid by a final
judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction.
Recommendation
Sec. 4. The legislature recommends to the governing body of a
municipality that it adopt the aggregate goals for the
municipality's contracting with minority and women enterprises set
forth in the June 1992, report of Texas Southern University as
specified for the categories of construction, procurement, and
professional services. A cause of action may not be maintained to
enforce this section or to recover damages based on the failure of
the municipality to follow the recommendation of this section.
Conditions Affecting Expenditure of Bond Proceeds
Sec. 5. (a) Expenditures of the bond proceeds by the municipality
shall:
(1) be made in accordance with the covenants of all ordinances
enacted by the municipality before the bond election approving the
bonds;
(2) benefit the residents of the municipality so that the benefits
or expenditures, if feasible, reflect the demographic makeup of the
municipality; and
(3) to the extent the proceeds are designated for housing in the
municipality's bond proposition, be made for construction and
rehabilitation of housing and all matters incidental to housing
construction and rehabilitation on-site.
(b) This section applies cumulatively to the entire bond
authorization, rather than to individual bond issues or contracts
for the expenditure of the proceeds, and the municipality's
governing body is responsible for making decisions on individual
bond issues and contracts.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 6, Sec. 2, eff. March 8, 1993.
