Sec. 231.138.  SPECIAL EXCEPTION.  (a)  Any of the following persons may petition the commissioners court for a special exception to a zoning regulation adopted by the commissioners court:
(1)  a person aggrieved by the regulation; or
(2)  any officer, department, board, or bureau of the county or of a municipality in the county.
(b)  The commissioners court shall hold a public hearing on the petition and shall publish notice of the hearing before the 15th day before the date of the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the county.
(c)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), the commissioners court may grant a petition for a special exception by majority vote.
(d)  If a proposed special exception to a zoning regulation is protested in accordance with this subsection, the proposed special exception must receive, in order to take effect, the affirmative vote of at least three-fourths of all members of the commissioners court.  The protest must be presented at the hearing and signed by the owners of at least 20 percent of:
(1)  the lots covered by the proposed exception; or
(2)  the lots immediately adjacent to the rear of the lots covered by the proposed exception extending 200 feet from those lots or from the street frontage of the opposite lots.
Added by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1, Sec. 53(a), eff. Aug. 28, 1989.