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Council to oppose bills that could impact landowners’ rights; Town purchases land for Windsor extension
By Chris Roark, Staff Writer
The Flower Mound Town Council took an official stand Monday to oppose several pieces of proposed state legislation that could impact municipalities’ rights, specifically as it pertains to oil and gas drilling.
The council directed town staff to send letters of opposition, which have already been written, to Austin regarding house bills 2110 and 4654. It also directed staff to write a letter of opposition and send it to Austin regarding House Bill 4144.
HB 2110, which is authored by Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), looks to compensate landowners who can’t access their minerals because of unreasonable gas drilling regulations. There was a public hearing April 1, and it has since reached the calendar committee.
Municipalities or counties could adopt an order or ordinance that conflicts with the commission’s model if the commission determines, following a hearing, the county or municipality has shown that because of circumstances specific to the county or municipality the public interest necessitates authorizing it to adopt the conflicting order or ordinance.
HB 4654 was left pending in committee following a public hearing Wednesday.
House Bill 4144, which is authored by Rep. Dan Gattis (R-Georgetown), would provide that a governing body do a variety of things, including requiring a municipality to: adopt a comprehensive plan that details current and future land uses; appoint an advisory committee, composed of at least 40 percent of representatives from the real estate, development or building industries, to adopt, amend and review the plan; have at least one public hearing before amending or adopting the plan; and allow a landowner to petition the county commissioners court to appoint three disinterested people to assess the reasonableness of a land use of that landowner’s tract under the plan if the landowner is unable to sell or develop the land in conformity with the land use for three years.
“We have, in my opinion, some major concerns,” said council member Al Filidoro. “House Bill 2110, in my opinion, would take away a very key eminent domain right that we have right now and that could cost us a lot of money and force us in many cases to settle against the issues that we’ve had in our local control.
“The issue with House Bill 4654, in my opinion, is the loss of local control,” Filidoro said. “My concern goes beyond oil and gas. My concern goes to once we start losing eminent domain, we have a problem. Once we lose local control, we have a problem.”
Filidoro said there should also be a resolution from the town in a couple of weeks that officially opposes all three bills.
Also at the meeting, the town voted, 4-0, to purchase 21.77 acres of property from a local landowner for the purpose of constructing the West Windsor roadway extension and proposed park amenities.
Council member Jeff Tasker was not at the meeting.
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