Bills Added to TMHA Defense List on County Land Use Authority at Filing Deadline

Tags: Advocacy

Thursday, March 20, 2025 3:43:42 PM

And finally, our previous posts have already detailed many of the bills that we have identified as having a possible negative impact on our industry.  Most of these bills fall within the landlord/tenant laws or county land use laws.  There are several bills this session targeting specifically MH communities as well.

To add to these lists and scope of work, we need to complete our defensive list now that the filing deadline has come and gone by adding the following (i.e. the Bad)

HB 4494 - Relating to county regulation of residential development.

  • Would expand county land use authority to allow counties to regulate all “residential development,” in the same manner they currently regulate subdivisions and specifical includes, “rental units, apartments, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks.”
  • The bill would also repeal (that means delete) the long-standing MHC minimum infrastructure laws for county development, which currently provide specific MHC development standards but also explicitly define MHCs as not being subdivisions under county land use law.

SB 2593 - relating to the authority of a county that borders the United Mexican States to regulate residential land use; creating a criminal offense.

  • Would give zoning authority to all counties on the Texas/Mexico border
  • Zoning authority would include all boarder county regulations of:
    • Size or height of building
    • Percentage of lot that may be occupied or developed;
    • Number of dwelling units per acres
    • Size of a setback or open space
    • Location, design, construction, extension, size, and installation of utilities, roads, and other essential services; and
    • Type of land use permitted.
  • A violation of the proposed boarder county zoning would trigger criminal penalties between $500 - $1000/per day.

We have reached out to compile input and industry best practices from our MH community developers.  Their input has been invaluable and greatly appreciated to help craft our responses and any potential future negotiations with bill authors.

TMHA and your Lobby Team thank you for your attention and support.