Stay tuned to see which committee in the House of Representatives this bill is referred to and be ready to call the members of that committee in support of this bill, (See our suggested comments at the bottom of the page). Below is a comprehensive update on where SB 421 stands.
Senator Lois Kolkhorst’s comments requesting passage of SB 421, eminent domain reform, in the Texas Senate. She begins – see Part 1, starting at the 2:27:01 point in the video. About 21 minutes, and worth finding the time to experience it all.
This outline of what the bill does comes from the Texas Farm Bureau:
SB 421, by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), was passed out of the Senate on April 4 with a 28-3 vote. The stakeholder groups have spent multiple weeks negotiating the bill with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Sen. Kolkhorst and Rep. DeWayne Burns. This was following weeks of negotiations initiated by Rep. Burns.
Unfortunately, a consensus was not reached on SB 421. Therefore, Sen. Kolkhorst decided to cease negotiations and attempt to vote the bill out of the Senate due to the fact we are now over halfway through the session. Fortunately, her Senate colleagues supported her in moving SB 421 out of the Senate. Rep. Burns will now resume negotiations in the Texas House.
The following is a summary of the final components in the bill that was voted out.
Low Initial Offer:
- Removes the penalties based on the Special Commissioners Award.
- Requires all offers to be based on fair market value and include damages to the remainder.
- Initial offer must be based on an appraisal, broker price opinion, comparative market analysis or market study.
- All of these methods of valuation must include damages to the remainder.
- All of these valuations must be conducted by a certified appraiser or licensed real estate broker.
Easement Terms:
- Every easement will include the basic easement terms that dictate the use of the easement, protections during construction and payment of damages to the property.
- Landowner may abate a condemnation if the easement doesn’t include these terms.
- Providing an easement with the basic terms will be required as part of the Bona Fide offer.
Landowner Meeting:
- Amends the definition of private entity to specify the bill applies to FOR-PROFIT entities, not non-profit or public entities.
- Removes the court from organizing and facilitating the meeting. The company will hold the meeting.
- The notice of the meeting will not be made available to the public. Only affected landowners get the notice.
- The company will have a meeting if 25 or more tracts of land owned by separate people are affected by a project. If less than 25 tracts are affected, the company will meet with landowners that request a meeting.
- Tracts owned by industrial facilities will not qualify for a property owner meeting. These are a refinery, processing facility, underground storage facility, electric station, power plant or storage terminal.
- Meetings will be held for each 100 mile segment in a central location so that no one has to drive more than 50 miles.
- Meeting will be held after 25% of the property owners receive an initial offer.
- The “property owner information meeting” will be limited to the property owner, relatives, tenants and employees. Landowners can have up to five people attend the meeting.
- Electric companies will include the eminent domain information in their current PUC routing meetings, instead of having a separate landowner meeting under this law.
- If the meeting is not held as required, then the condemnation can be abated.
Suggested Comment Template
Let’s focus only on these TWO points:
a) You support SB421 and
b) You want to see Landowner Rights protected.
We are told that adding anti-this or anti-that chatter may cloud the message, and result in not being counted properly. So keep it short & simple: stay on topic!