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.