Municipal governing bodies must designate all city territory into area types, notify appraisal districts quickly, and use those designations and land-value calculations to set fee-related factors.
Sec. 212.209. INITIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DETERMINING FEES. (a) For purposes of determining the amount of a fee imposed under this section, the governing body of a municipality, after providing at least 30 days' public notice and holding a public hearing, shall by official action designate all territory within its municipal boundaries as a suburban area, urban area, or central business district area. The governing body may use the same designation for multiple areas in the municipality. The governing body may amend a designation only during the adoption or amendment of a municipal comprehensive plan under Chapter 213. (b) Not later than the 10th day after the date the municipality designates its territory under Subsection (a), the municipality shall notify each appraisal district in which the municipality is wholly or partly located of the designation. (c) Once every 10 years, each appraisal district in which the municipality is wholly or partly located shall calculate and provide to the municipality the average land value for each area or portion of an area designated by the municipality under Subsection (a) that is located in the district. (d) If multiple appraisal districts calculate an average land value for different portions of an area designated under Subsection (a), the municipality shall determine the area's total average land value by: (1) multiplying each district's calculated value for the portion located in the district by the percentage, expressed as a fraction, that the portion is to the total area; and (2) adding the resulting amounts. (e) In each year other than the year in which an appraisal district calculates average land values under Subsection (c), a municipality shall calculate the average land value for each area designated under Subsection (a) by multiplying the previous year's average land value for the area by one plus the average consumer price index for each month of the previous year. (f) A municipality shall set the municipality's dwelling unit factor, which reflects the number of parkland acres for each dwelling unit proposed by a plan application. The factor may not be more than: (1).005 for multifamily units; and (2).004 for rooms in a hotel or motel ordinarily used for sleeping. (g) A municipality shall set the municipality's density factor, which reflects the diminishing expectation of parkland acres per dwelling unit in increasingly dense urban environments, for each area designated by the municipality under Subsection (a). The density factor may not be less than: (1) one for the suburban area; (2) four for the urban area; and (3) 40 for the central business district area. Added by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 493 (H.B. 1526), Sec. 1, eff. June 10, 2023.