The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission’s vote in favor of proceeding with eminent domain/condemnation of the land and water rights at Fairfield Lake in Freestone County should be immediately reversed. The resulting actions of this vote set a dangerous precedent regarding private property rights and ownership throughout Texas.
This action also directly opposes the results of the Texas Legislature’s House Bill 2332 and Senate Bill 1656, put forth for consideration during the 88th legislative session this year, and rejected.
In voting against these bills, which supported eminent domain over the property, the Legislature deemed this course of action to not be in the best interests of the citizens of the state of Texas. The parks commission’s vote sets a precedent that allows appointed officials to overrule the decisions of publicly elected legislators.
Further, the state declined an opportunity to purchase the property at the end of its lease, and failed to make an offer during an openly marketed sale process, choosing instead to move forward with eminent domain upon the sale’s closing and, in turn, send an ominous message to private property holders in Texas.
The state of Texas has countless leases with real estate owners across the state. Pursuing eminent domain at the expiration of a government lease creates a challenging precedent for property owners who lease to state agencies, and for future real estate transactions related to these leases. Allowing state agencies the power to do so without oversight and support from the Legislature is extremely problematic, especially as the local government where the property is located, Freestone County, does not support or endorse this action.
Further, allowing this precedent could lead to attempts at similar overreach with eminent domain by other state agencies in the future.
With the commission’s vote, the state is authorizing not only eminent domain over the 1,821 acres of land formerly leased to the state of Texas, but also an additional 3,200 acres of land and surface water and water rights, which are privately owned and have never been part of the state’s lease.
According to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department press release, the commission also instructed TPWD Executive Director David Yoskowitz to draft a policy to restrict the agency’s use of eminent domain to extraordinary and unusual situations. The transaction in Freestone County was neither extraordinary nor unusual but a matter of private property ownership and the right to conduct marketplace business.
This vote to apply eminent domain will set a standard that could have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences, and drafting a policy that prevents this type of action once the vote has already been taken is not acceptable.
We at the Real Estate Council (TREC) do not want to see our state parks, which we, along with millions of our fellow Texans, cherish and support, begin a second century of existence under a cloud, having wrongly infringed on one of our state’s longest-held and most treasured principles: the protection of private property rights.
On behalf of TREC, I respectfully request that the parks commission immediately rescind its directive for eminent domain and condemnation and swiftly proceed with drafting a policy that will guide future commissioners on what constitutes appropriate use of the powers conferred upon them.
Linda McMahon is the president and CEO of The Real Estate Council, the largest commercial real estate organization in Texas, representing more than 2,000 members and 650 member companies. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.
Editor’s note: Todd Interests, the owner of the property at Fairfield Lake, is a TREC member.
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