Sec. 49.503. PETITION BY MUNICIPAL WATER SUPPLIER TO CONVERT WATER USE AFTER SUBDIVISION. (a) This section applies only to land:

(1) that is:

(A) subdivided into town lots or blocks or small parcels of the same general nature as town lots or blocks;

(B) designed, intended, or suitable for residential or other nonagricultural purposes, including streets, alleys, parkways, parks, detention or retention ponds, and railroad property and rights-of-way; or

(C) in a subdivision created to meet the requirements of a governmental entity authorized to require a recorded plat of subdivided lands;

(2) that is in a subdivision for which a plat or map has been filed and recorded in the office of the county clerk of each county in which the subdivision is wholly or partly located; and

(3) that is or was assessed as flat rate irrigable property in the municipal water supplier's certificated service area or its corporate area.

(b) A municipal water supplier that serves land described by Subsection (a) may petition the district in accordance with this section to convert the proportionate irrigation water right to the Rio Grande from irrigation use to municipal use with municipal priority of allocation under commission rules, for the use and benefit of the municipal water supplier.

(c) The municipal water supplier must file the petition with the district not later than January 1 after the expiration of two years after the date the plat or map was recorded under Subsection (a). The district shall consider the petition not later than January 31 of the year following the year in which the petition was filed.

(d) The petition must identify by subdivision name or other sufficient description the land that the municipal water supplier supplies or has the right to supply potable water.

(e) This section applies only to one subdivision of the land recorded under Subsection (a). This section does not apply to any further subdivision of the same property.

Added by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1430 (S.B. 3), Sec. 2.24, eff. September 1, 2007.