SECTION 11.56. Delegation of Access Permit Authority to Municipalities or Eligible Counties

(a) Intent. Except as provided in §11.58 of this subchapter (relating to Connection with Regionally Significant Highway), a municipality or eligible county may include highways on the state highway system in its local access management plan. The intent of the department is to allow municipalities or eligible counties, upon request, to assume responsibility for issuing permits for access connections to state highways within the jurisdiction of the municipality or eligible county under a local access management plan when the municipality or eligible county has the ability to issue permits.

(b) Precedence. A local access management plan supersedes an order of the commission under Transportation Code, §203.031(a)(2) or (4) to the extent that they conflict, unless:

(1) the Federal Highway Administration notifies the department that enforcement of the local access management plan would impair the ability of the state or the department to receive funds for highway construction or maintenance from the federal government; or

(2) the department owns the access rights.

(c) Application. The department will apply a local access management plan under this section when the municipality or eligible county provides its local access management plan to the department with an indication of its desire that the plan be applied within its jurisdiction and an implementation date. The department will implement any subsequent changes to the local access management plan when the municipality or eligible county submits the changes to the department with a proposed implementation date for the changes.

(d) Local access permitting function. A municipality or eligible county that desires to undertake the access permitting process on highways on the state highway system shall submit its proposed permitting procedures to the department. If the department determines that the proposed procedures adequately address the requirements in subsection (f) of this section, it will transfer to the municipality or eligible county the access permitting function within the municipality's or eligible county's jurisdiction. The municipality or eligible county shall submit to the department a copy of each approved access permit on the state highway system within ten working days of its approval.

(e) Assumption of permitting function optional. Municipalities or eligible counties are not required to take over the access permitting function for state highways within their jurisdiction.

(f) Engineering. Granting access location permit authority to municipalities or eligible counties does not preclude the need to properly engineer access locations. Any impacts to drainage or hydraulics on highways on the state highway system resulting from access connections must be coordinated with the department prior to any local access approval. Issuance of access permits by a municipality or eligible county must address driveway geometrics, utility location or relocation, compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Texas Accessibility Standards (TAS), and all other applicable state and federal laws, rules, and regulations. In addition, each access connection must comply with the applicable environmental review requirements in Chapter 2 of this title (relating to Environmental Policy).

Source Note: The provisions of this §11.56 adopted to be effective February 18, 2010, 35 TexReg 1297