A municipality may designate a reinvestment zone by ordinance, but only after a public hearing and required findings. The ordinance must describe the zone’s boundaries and eligibility for certain tax benefits, and notice must be given at least 7 days before the hearing.
Sec. 312.201. DESIGNATION OF REINVESTMENT ZONE. (a) The governing body of a municipality by ordinance may designate as a reinvestment zone an area, or real or personal property the use of which is directly related to outdoor advertising, in the taxing jurisdiction or extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality that the governing body finds satisfies the requirements of Section 312.202. (b) The ordinance must describe the boundaries of the zone and the eligibility of the zone for residential tax abatement or commercial-industrial tax abatement or tax increment financing as provided for in Chapter 311. (c) Area of a reinvestment zone designated for residential tax abatement or commercial-industrial tax abatement may be included in an overlapping or coincidental residential or commercial-industrial zone. In that event, the zone in which the property is considered to be located for purposes of executing an agreement under Section 312.204 or 312.211 is determined by the comprehensive zoning ordinance, if any, of the municipality. (d) The governing body may not adopt an ordinance designating an area as a reinvestment zone until the governing body has held a public hearing on the designation and has found that the improvements sought are feasible and practical and would be a benefit to the land to be included in the zone and to the municipality after the expiration of an agreement entered into under Section 312.204 or 312.211, as applicable. At the hearing, interested persons are entitled to speak and present evidence for or against the designation. Not later than the seventh day before the date of the hearing, notice of the hearing must be: (1) published in a newspaper having general circulation in the municipality; and (2) delivered in writing to the presiding officer of the governing body of each taxing unit that includes in its boundaries real property that is to be included in the proposed reinvestment zone. (e) A notice made under Subsection (d)(2) is presumed delivered when placed in the mail postage paid and properly addressed to the appropriate presiding officer. A notice properly addressed and sent by registered or certified mail for which a return receipt is received by the sender is considered to have been delivered to the addressee. Added by Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 191, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987. Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 2, Sec. 14.08(a), eff. Aug. 28, 1989; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 855, Sec. 10, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1333, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.