HBA-CBW H.B. 2340 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2340 By: Salinas Land & Resource Management 4/17/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Counties are finding it difficult to provide infrastructure, including water, sewer service, roads, and fire and police protection to persons purchasing parcels of land within subdivisions exempt from county subdivision platting requirements. In some cases, developers purchase land along existing county roads and subdivide it into properties with highway frontages, thereby eliminating the need for access roads since the land can be directly accessed from the county road. Often, the parcels of land consist of 10.1 acres since the law allows for lots 10-acres or larger to be developed and marketed without the developer having to meet county subdivision platting requirements. As a result, a large parcel of land with one owner fronting a county road is transformed into multiple parcels of land with multiple owners to whom the county must provide services. Land sold through the Veterans' Land Board program (program) is exempted from platting requirements for subdivisions if all of the lots of the subdivision are sold to veterans through the program. The exemption may have created a loophole for developers to subdivide tracts of land, market them to veterans, and then sell the subdivided tracts of land to non-veterans. House Bill 2340 increases from 10 acres to 25 acres the minimum acreage necessary to qualify for a subdivision platting exemption and excepts any subdivided tract of land owned by the veterans' land fund from plat requirements unless the subdivision lays out part of the tract as streets, alleys, squares, parks, or other parts for public use or use by certain purchases or owners. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 2340 amends the Local Government Code to provide that a county may not require the owner of a tract of land located outside the limits of a municipality who divides the tract to have a plat of the subdivision prepared if all of the lots are more than 25 acres, rather than 10 acres. The bill also excepts a subdivision of any tract of land owned by the veterans' land fund from county subdivision platting requirements unless the subdivision lays out a part of the tract as streets, alleys, squares, parks, or other parts for public use or use by certain purchasers or owners. The bill repeals the provision prohibiting a county from requiring the owner of a tract of land located outside the limits of a municipality to have a plat of the subdivision of a tract prepared if all the lots are sold to veterans through the Veterans' Land Board program. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.