Senate committee advances bill setting perimeter-fence standards for certain commercial and industrial sites

Senator Scott Flippo (District 23) returned to the City, County & Local Affairs Committee with House Bill 1406 after pulling it earlier to resolve questions about unintended consequences. "This would require a perimeter fence for anybody else outside of a, you know, a commercial industrial, you know, type business," Flippo said, specifying the measure would not affect agriculture.

Flippo described the bill as setting a uniform statewide standard for battery-charged fences that work with an alarm system to protect business property, naming rail yards and salvage or heavy-equipment yards as examples of the sites the bill targets. He said the bill drafter and BLR (the Bureau of Legislative Research) had confirmed that interpretation of its language.

Following a brief presentation and no recorded public testimony, Flippo moved for passage, a second was recorded, and the committee approved the bill by voice vote. The transcript records only 'aye' responses and the chair's announcement that the bill passed; individual vote tallies are not provided.