Transportation Code § 203.051

Sec. 203.051. ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY AUTHORIZED. (a) The commission may acquire by purchase, on terms and conditions the commission considers proper or by the exercise of eminent domain, in the name of the state: (1) an interest in real property; (2) any property rights, including: (A) a right of ingress or egress; and (B) a reservation right in real property that restricts or prohibits for not more than seven years the: (i) addition of a new improvement on the real property; (ii) addition to or modification of an existing improvement on the real property; or (iii) subdivision of the real property; and (3) timber, earth, stone, gravel, or other material. (b) Chapter 21, Property Code, applies to an acquisition by eminent domain. (c) The department may condemn the fee or a lesser interest in the property. (d) The department shall, in a statement or petition in condemnation, exclude from the interest to be condemned all the oil, gas, and sulphur that can be removed from beneath the real property. This exclusion shall be made without providing the owner of the oil, gas, or sulphur any right of ingress or egress to or from the surface of the land to explore, develop, drill, or mine the real property. (e) Subsection (a) does not authorize the commission to condemn property that is used and dedicated for cemetery purposes under Subtitle C, Title 8, Health and Safety Code. Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.