HB5658

HB5658 creates Craver Ranch Municipal Management District No. 1 over a legally described 2,801.468-acre area in Denton County. It authorizes infrastructure and services such as water, wastewater, drainage, roads, recreation and parking, along with economic-development programs, loans and grants. The district supplements, rather than replaces, existing city services.

Before exercising any district powers, a development agreement must be executed between the primary landowner and the city, defined in the act as the City of Denton. The survey description itself refers to Sanger; the operative definition still names Denton. If the agreement has not been executed after September 1, 2030, a written city request triggers dissolution under the act’s procedures. A five-member elected board has staggered four-year terms; the act names the initial directors and provides for successors if elections have not occurred before their terms expire.

The district cannot impose a property-value tax, but may impose assessments and fees and borrow money. Assessment-financed improvements or services require a petition signed by owners of a majority of the assessed value of the real property subject to assessment. Assessments, penalties, interest, collection expenses and reasonable legal fees become personal obligations and enforceable property liens, subordinate to specified local property-tax liens. The ordinary statutory exemption for certain small residential properties does not apply here; homeowners should not equate “no property tax” with “no district charges.”

The first bond issuance requires applicable municipal consent. Certain revenue- or contract-backed bonds can be issued without an election. Division into new districts is allowed only without outstanding bonded debt and cannot initially reach outside the act’s described territory. Dissolution provisions protect outstanding debts, contractual payments and continued handling of public facilities.

The district has no eminent-domain power. The final House concurrence vote was 85–52, short of the two-thirds threshold needed for the alternative grant of that power, despite the earlier House vote of 103–45 and Senate vote of 28–3. The bill became law without the governor’s signature June 20, 2025, and took effect September 1. Sources: enrolled law and votes, history and effective-date remarks, and residential exemption displaced by the act.