City staff outlines surge in Texas bill filings, flags several proposals that would limit local land-use and utility authority

Ariel Tribe, Garland city staff, told the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee that roughly 3,000 bills were filed in the Texas Legislature this filing period, a record that staff said is about 650 more than the last session.

Tribe summarized deadlines and the committee and floor schedule, saying May 12 is the last day for House committees to report bills and May 28 is the last day for the Senate to consider bills on second and third reading. She added that “June 2, we'll hopefully be done with no special sessions.”

Why it matters: The volume of bills and several that target municipal authority could directly affect Garland’s zoning, utility regulation and local finance tools. Committee members discussed specific bills the city is monitoring and the staff positions Garland has submitted or plans to submit.

Tribe said Garland is actively tracking hundreds of bills: “We have close to 10,000 filed. We have came in at 98, 90 7. We're actively tracking 985,” and after additional review she said staff expects that list to expand closer to 2,000. She reported a large uptick in public safety, land-use, property-tax and utility bills and said many either have not yet been referred to committees or have only just been set for hearings.

Key bills and staff positions discussed

- Land use and housing: The committee was warned about Senate Bill 15, described by staff as a lot-size and density bill; Tribe said Garland submitted written comments in opposition after the bill was heard in Senate Local Government. She summarized the bill’s effect this way: “No lot. We can't require a minimum lot size greater than 1,400 square feet.” Committee members also heard that bills limiting municipal rules for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and allowing conversions of office buildings to residential uses (described in the meeting as Senate Bill 673 and Senate Bill 840/854) could curtail local zoning control. Garland submitted written comments against several of those measures.

- Utilities and municipal finance: Staff flagged multiple municipal utility and franchise-fee bills, including Senate Bill 1202 and House Bill 1227, which staff said are currently opposed but may be negotiated. Staff described a municipal finance bill (referred to in the meeting as Senate Bill 1004) that would limit the city’s ability to issue certain anticipation notes and said, “if we try to do 1 and then it failed the bond proposition, we'd have to wait 5 years before going back to do that again.”

- Third-party inspection/contractor rules: Staff said it submitted written comments opposing House Bill 23 (third-party review of inspections), raising concerns that the measure would require third-party inspections without specifying licensing or regulatory parity and could leave the city liable; staff said they are working with the bill author’s office to address liability and standards.

- DART governance and mobility funding: The committee discussed two related measures (identified in the meeting as Senate Bill 1557 and House Bill 3187) that would change the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) board composition and create a general mobility fund funded by one-quarter of a cent of sales tax. Tribe explained the effect: the bill would give each member city one representative on the DART board while giving Dallas three votes and would establish a general mobility fund that cities could draw from. She said Garland “would actually benefit from this one,” estimating Garland would contribute about $40 million and could receive about $11 million for local transportation projects under the proposed fund structure. The bills would also set terms and new rules for a city to withdraw from DART, including a repayment calculation paused on the withdrawal date and a required notice period reduced to six years.

- Alcoholic beverage zoning and local authority: Tribe said Garland filed two legislative initiatives to secure explicit authority over local alcoholic beverage zoning: House Bill 3085 (carried by Bridal Bowers, per the transcript) and Senate Bill 2633 (carried by Sen. Nathan Johnson). Both bills were filed but had not yet been referred; staff said they are working to route the measures to committees more likely to advance them.

- Qualified hotel project (hotel-tax/“hot tax”) access: Tribe said Garland filed companion measures (identified in the meeting as House Bill 5562 and Senate Bill 2565) to allow Garland to access qualified-hotel project incentives funded by hotel occupancy taxes. She said it is customary for council to pass a resolution of support ahead of hearings and that she prepared a draft resolution the committee could recommend the full council consider.

Positions and next steps

Tribe provided a list of bills Garland has opposed, the offices and legislators the city is working with to negotiate language, and said staff has submitted written comments to several committees. She asked committee members to identify specific bills of interest so staff could follow up; members named an array of bill numbers related to development, impact fees, public improvement districts (PIDs), municipal utility districts (MUDs) and developer connections.

Committee members asked staff to pull stances from the city’s bill-tracking system and report back. Tribe said she will present the same update to the full council later the same day and will discuss the draft hotel-tax resolution with council members before that meeting.

Quotes and attributions in this article come from remarks in the committee meeting by Ariel Tribe and from questions or comments by Garland council members, as indicated in the transcript.