Bill Sponsors / Authors:

  Rep. Cody Harris
  R - Lubbock

 

Supporting Documents / Links:

•   Nicole Smothers Opposing HB 1279
  April 5, 2023

House Bill 1279 – Reduction of ETJ from 5 miles to .5 miles

The State of Texas defines a city’s rights and responsibilities for properties within its boundaries and the area immediately surrounding (ETJ) within the Local Government Code.

For the City of Houston, its ETJ is about a 5-mile band around the City’s general-purpose boundary unless that area intersects with another municipality and/or its ETJ. Two important regulatory authorities that the City has over its ETJ is the development and subdivision of land as well as that the authority to consent to the creation and expansion of other governmental entities such as municipal utility districts (MUDs).

The City uses these two tools in order to ensure that new development going around the City is compatible to the requirements within the City so that the area maintain a high quality of health and safety and so if the area were to ever be annexed, that area would seamlessly work within the City limits.

House Bill 1279 would have changed the size of the extraterritorial jurisdiction for municipalities based on population. Currently, the City of Houston has a 5-mile radius around its full purpose city boundary that is considered it’s ETJ. In this area, the City regulates platting activity and long-range transportation planning through its major thoroughfare and freeway plan. This bill would have reduced the size of the ETJ from 5 miles to one-half mile for any city with a population greater than 100,000 inhabitants.

The services provided by Houston would have to be absorbed by another entity. 

The bill was not passed out of the House Land & Resource Management Committee.