Texas Special District Local Laws Code - SDLL § 8502.014. Acquisition of Property; Eminent Domain

(a) The authority may acquire by purchase, lease, or gift or in any other manner and may maintain, use, and operate property of any kind, real, personal, or mixed, or any interest in property, within or outside the boundaries of the authority, necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers, rights, privileges, and functions conferred on the authority by this chapter.

(b) The authority may acquire, by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, any property the board determines necessary to make effectual and practicable the construction and operation of all works, improvements, and services that are planned ultimately to be provided by the authority to accomplish any of the purposes for which the authority was created. The acquisition or condemnation may be either of the fee simple title or of a lesser title or an easement only, within the discretion of the board; provided, however, that a person may not be deprived of any defense available under the general law of eminent domain; and provided, further, that the authority may not acquire or operate a steam generating plant for the production and sale of electric energy and, except for the purpose of acquiring the necessary area below or above the anticipated high-water line of a reservoir, may not condemn any property of a rural electrification cooperative or other corporations engaged in the generation or sale of electric energy to the public.

(c) The authority may exercise the power of eminent domain for the purpose of acquiring by condemnation property of any kind, real, personal, or mixed, or any interest in property, within or outside the boundaries of the authority, other than property or an interest in property outside the boundaries of the authority owned by any body politic, that is necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers, rights, privileges, and functions conferred on the authority by this chapter, in the manner provided by general law with respect to condemnation or, at the option of the authority, in the manner provided by statutes relative to condemnation by districts organized under general law under Section 59, Article XVI, Texas Constitution.

(d) In condemnation proceedings being prosecuted by the authority, the authority is not required to give bond for appeal or bond for cost.

(e) The authority may overflow and inundate any public lands and public property and may require the relocation of roads and highways in the manner and to the extent permitted to districts organized under general law under Section 59, Article XVI, Texas Constitution.

(f) If the authority, in the exercise of the power of eminent domain or power of relocation or any other power granted under this chapter, makes necessary the relocation, raising, rerouting, changing the grade, or altering the construction of any highway, railroad, electric transmission line, or pipeline, all necessary relocation, raising, rerouting, changing of grade, or alteration of construction shall be accomplished at the sole expense of the authority.