Town, a general-law municipality, brought action against owner of subdivision lot located in town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), seeking injunction to stop owner’s construction of home on lot until owner obtained town building permit.
The District Court granted temporary injunction. Owner filed interlocutory appeal. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded. Town filed petition for review, which was granted.
The Supreme Court of Texas held that:
- Supreme Court had jurisdiction over interlocutory appeal;
- Town did not have statutory authority to enforce its building codes within its ETJ, abrogating City of Lucas v. North Texas Municipal Water District, 724 S.W.2d 811; and
- Public policy arguments did not permit town to enforce building codes within its ETJ.
Supreme Court had jurisdiction over town’s petition for review from decision on interlocutory appeal reversing and remanding temporary injunction granted in favor of town to stop owner of subdivision lot located in town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) from constructing home on lot until owner obtained town building permit. Although decision reversing and remanding temporary injunction was unanimous, decision conflicted with other appellate court decisions.
Town, a general-law municipality, did not have statutory authority to enforce its building codes or building-permit requirements within its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) in order to require owner of subdivision lot located in town’s ETJ to obtain town building permit prior to building home on lot. Although town had authority to enforce rules and ordinances governing plats and subdivisions of land within its ETJ, building codes and building-permit requirements were not rules governing plats and subdivisions, statutes that referenced enforcement of building codes within ETJs and recognized that other statutes might permit such authority did not authorize town to enforce building codes within its ETJ, and Local Government Code did not impliedly allow town to enforce building codes within its ETJ; abrogating City of Lucas v. North Texas Municipal Water District, 724 S.W.2d 811.
Public policy arguments in support of position that town, as general-law municipality, had power to enforce building codes and building-permit requirements within its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) did not permit town to enforce codes in order to require owner of subdivision lot within town’s ETJ to obtain town building permit prior to constructing home on lot; as general-law municipality, town was not permitted to exercise its powers outside its corporate limits unless legislature expressly or necessarily granted such authority, and courts were not permitted to judicially confer authority on town, regardless of compelling public policy reasons for doing so.