COASTAL EROSION PUBLIC AWARENESS AND EDUCATION; LOCAL GOVERNMENT PLANNING AND REGULATION.

(a) The land office shall be responsible for and shall coordinate with other agencies to increase public awareness through public education concerning:

(1) the causes of erosion;

(2) the consequences of erosion;

(3) the importance of barrier islands, dunes, and bays as a natural defense against storms and hurricanes; and

(4) erosion avoidance techniques.

(b) On an ongoing basis, the commissioner, in consultation with the Bureau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas at Austin and coastal county and municipal governments, shall monitor historical erosion rates at each location along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

(c) The commissioner shall make historical erosion data accessible, through the Internet and otherwise, to the public and persons receiving the notice required under Section 61.025.

(d) The Bureau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas at Austin shall make historical erosion data relating to a critical coastal erosion area available to each state agency, local government, or other person responsible for, or with jurisdiction over, the area.

(e) A local government subject to Chapter 61 or 63 shall use historical erosion data and the coastal erosion response plan published by the commissioner under Section 33.602 to prepare a local plan for reducing public expenditures for erosion and storm damage losses to public and private property, including public beaches. A plan prepared under this subsection may include a building set-back line that will accommodate a shoreline retreat. The local government shall hold a public educational meeting on the plan before proposing to implement it through the plans, orders, or ordinances provided by Chapters 61 and 63.

(f) A local plan for reducing public expenditures for erosion and storm damage losses to public and private property prepared under Subsection (e) may:

(1) preserve and enhance the public's right of access to and use of the public beach;

(2) preserve critical sand dunes for natural storm protection and conservation purposes;

(3) establish a building set-back line no further landward than the dune protection line established by the local government under Chapter 63;

(4) provide for the prohibition of new construction seaward of the building set-back line; and

(5) provide for the acquisition of fee title to or a lesser interest in property seaward of the building set-back line.

(g) The commissioner may adopt rules for the preparation and implementation by a local government of a local plan for reducing public expenditures for erosion and storm damage losses to public and private property under Subsection (e).

(h) Chapter 2007, Government Code, does not apply to a rule or local government order or ordinance authorized by this section.