City of Houston 2023Legislative Report

Land Use

Bill Sponsors / Authors:

Cody Harris   Rep. Cody Harris
  R - Palestine

Paul Bettencourt   Sen. Paul Bettencourt
  R - Houston

 

Supporting Documents / Links:

Land Use GraphicHouse Bill 14 – Platting Third-Party Review

During the 87th interim session, the Texas Municipal League (TML) worked with the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Home Builders Association in order to work through the permitting shot-clock impacts from House Bill 3167 from 2019. While these negotiations were still ongoing among the associations, several bills were filed relating to permitting and the shot clock, two of note are House Bill 14 and House Bill 866 (Senate Bill 494).

This speaker priority bill on platting passed this legislative session.

While not part of the original negotiations that TML was working on, TML was worked with the bill author to minimize the impact to cities.

This bill:

  • Allows an applicant to have a plat, plan, or inspection done by a third party reviewer if the regulatory authority does not complete the review and approve/deny the plat, plan or inspection by 15 days after the shot clock deadline.
  • Allows a third-party reviewer to be someone that:
    • employed by the regulatory authority to review development documents;
    • employed by another political subdivision to review development documents, if the regulatory authority has approved the person to review development documents; or
    • an engineer licensed under Chapter 1001, Occupations Code
  • Requires that third-party reviewers:
    • Review the application in accordance to all laws; and
    • Provide the regulatory authority with the results of that review within 15 days of it being filed with the third-party reviewer.
  • Prohibits an additional fee for a third-party review.
  • Prohibits a regulatory authority to request or require an applicant to waive their deadline
  • Allows an applicant to appeal to a governing body the regulatory authority’s decision to approve or deny an application and the inspection results.
  • Requires that the appeal be made by 15 days after the 15-day deadline.
  • Requires the governing body to affirm, by a majority vote, the regulatory authority’s decision by 60 days after the appeal is filed, or the application or inspection is considered approved.

This bill will have a significant impact on the Planning Department’s process for reviewing land development applications. This bill does not clarify whether a third-party review can circumvent a regulatory authority’s decision nor clarify how to keep third-party reviewers accountable whenever their decisions are not in line with the regulatory requirements. Third-party review risks the a slow down of the development process by 14 to 75 days after an action by the City.

This bill takes effect September 1, 2023.