SB1566

The new exception permits a covered utility provider to connect water, sewer, electricity, gas or other utility service without the municipal certificate concerning plat requirements under section 212.0115. That municipal land-development certificate is different from the provider’s certificate of convenience and necessity. SB1566 requires the latter for this new exception; it does not issue one. Final law, section 1; Municipal certification provision, section 1.

This is permission to connect despite that particular paperwork requirement, not a promise of free service or an unconditional requirement to connect every property. The listed providers include municipalities, municipal utilities, public utilities, water-supply or sewer-service corporations, counties, and state-created districts or authorities. Section 212.012 also preserves proceedings and penalties against subdividers for other violations. Final law; Current section 212.012, subsections (b) and (h).

The introduced, Senate committee, Senate-passed and House committee texts contain the same operative provisions as the final law. The sole indexed floor amendment, offered by Cecil Bell and adopted in the House, proposed broader land-release changes: an explicit exception to municipal consent; residency and ownership limits on petitions; an appraisal-value calculation rule; notice within seven business days; and a landowner option to stay in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Conference dropped those additions and restored the Senate text. None of those additions was enacted by SB1566. Text versions; Amendment index; House amendment; Conference report; Final law.

The referenced release routes already existed under 2023 SB2038: a qualifying petition or an election process, with geographic and other exceptions. Separately, 2025 HB2512 added further exclusions and election-route protections, including notice and an option to remain. Those changes apply to petitions or election requests filed on or after September 1, 2025. They are not SB1566’s discarded House amendment becoming law through this bill. 2023 release law; Separate 2025 HB2512, sections 1–7.

Court context checked November 2, 2026: on October 15, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal without prejudice of the cities’ challenge to SB2038 in City of Aledo v. State. It found no adequately pleaded claim overcoming the state’s immunity from suit and did not decide the separate standing argument. This was not a ruling granting every parcel a release or deciding any particular customer’s utility-service entitlement. The docket checked for this review listed the opinion and judgment; this explanation does not claim that all possible further review is exhausted. Court opinion, pages 2, 6–20; Case docket.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Owners and residents of qualifying released land may avoid a municipal plat-certificate obstacle to obtaining utility service. Providers can use the exception only when the release route and service-certificate conditions are met. SB1566 does not appropriate connection funding, set utility rates, or erase other service requirements and subdivision penalties. Final law; Current connection statute.

The final fiscal note anticipates no fiscal implication to the state but says local governments providing utility services could be affected. It gives no dollar estimate or quantified savings period for that local effect. It is not evidence that all providers or households incur zero costs. Final fiscal note.