Texas to use eminent domain to seize Fairfield Lake State Park from private development
Texas will make the drastic move to use eminent domain to seize a popular state park south of Dallas at the center of a monthslong battle between the state and a private developer.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously Saturday to condemn Fairfield Lake State Park in a bid to acquire the land and halt Dallas-based developer Shawn Todd’s plans to turn it into a luxury community with multimillion-dollar homes and a golf course.
Calling these extraordinary and unusual circumstances in a state known for protecting landowner rights, Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, chairman of the nine-member commission, said eminent domain is a last resort that will save and expand a “beloved state park.”
Before the vote to condemn roughly 5,000 acres, environmental advocates, lawmakers and home and business owners in Freestone County urged commissioners to save the park from development.
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“Texans have enjoyed this land for over 50 years,” said Luke Metzger, executive director of the nonprofit group Environment Texas. “We‘re at risk of losing a beautiful state park to a private playground for the rich.”
Negotiations are far from over, however.
Todd, who owns the land, has warned that eminent domain would be a costly move for Texas. Under eminent domain, the government can acquire land for public use as long as it pays the owner a fair price.
Construction equipment arrived at the state park this week, and Todd estimated the price tag of eminent domain — including his company’s loss of economic opportunity — in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Dallas Morning News repeatedly tried to reach Todd for comment on Saturday, sending requests by phone, text and email. He could not be reached.
Aplin told The News he could not disclose the state’s offer. If the state and Todd cannot reach an agreement, the issue will be decided in court.
Roughly 90 miles southeast of Dallas, Fairfield Lake has been the subject of a highly contentious conflict for months. The park opened to the public in 1976, but the property was owned by Vistra Energy, which leased the land to the state at no cost.
Vistra listed the property for sale in 2021 for $110.5 million, but Texas could not afford the land. Todd Interests has been under contract for the past year and closed on the property earlier this month.
Meanwhile, money began to pour in from a 2019 constitutional amendment directing sales-tax revenue from sporting goods to the Texas parks department. The state now says it has the means to purchase the land, but the two sides have repeatedly failed to reach a deal. The park has closed to the public twice this year as the parks department prepared to decommission it, and it remains closed now.
In May, Texas made a $25 million offer to buy Todd Interests out of its contract, which Todd declined. At least three bills related to condemning Fairfield Lake stalled in the Texas Legislature during the session that just ended.
Although much of the back-and-forth has been behind closed doors, evidence of the drama trickled into the public in recent weeks, including a last-minute $95 million offer from the state to Vistra and accusations from Todd that the state was acting in bad faith.
The unusual saga pitted well-known Texas business owners against one another. Aplin, chairman of the Texas parks commission, is the founder and CEO of Buc-ee’s. Todd is behind high-end projects in downtown Dallas, including The National and East Quarter.
It also brought to the forefront concerns over landowner rights. Aplin and other commissioners assured property owners that Saturday’s vote to use eminent domain would not set a precedent. Parks officials are developing a written policy to restrict the agency’s use of eminent domain to “extraordinary and unusual situations.”
“This commission has zero interest in condemning farms, ranches, working lands,” Aplin said. “We do not take this decision lightly.”
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed the commissioners, who are largely business leaders in oil and gas, finance, retail and transportation. Commissioners serve unpaid six-year terms.
Several commissioners said they were loath to use eminent domain, but that Fairfield Lake posed an unprecedented challenge.
“I think we have a clear duty to act for the greater good of all Texans,” commissioner Jeffery Hildebrand said before the vote. “While we have the power of eminent domain, that power should be used sparingly and reluctantly.”
Fairfield Lake, the 2,400-acre centerpiece of the park, lies along a rural stretch of land in Freestone County. Its proximity to Dallas, Houston and Austin has made the land highly sought-after real estate.
Drawing roughly 80,000 visitors a year, the park offers miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding, but its biggest draw is catfish and bass fishing.
In its place, Todd Interests envisioned a $1 billion community called Freestone Club with a championship golf course, restaurants, fitness center, resort pool, spa and a general store. Freestone also would feature tennis courts, hiking trails, pickleball courts and a whiffle ball stadium.
The roughly 400 homes would range from $5 million to $7 million, each on at least one acre of land, developers estimated.
“We think it will be majority, if not all, secondary homes,” Todd told The News this year. “We want a place where people can step out of the city.”
In March, state park officials said Todd indicated plans to sell some of the lake’s water to parched cities in North Texas, a move environmentalists argued would devastate the lake and that worried residents in Freestone County.
Parks department officials said roughly 80% of the nearly 300 public comments the agency received regarding Fairfield Lake supported using eminent domain.
State Rep. Angelia Orr, a Republican who represents Freestone County and filed a bill to use eminent domain to claim the land, said her office was inundated with people asking her to save the park.
“While you may hear that one family’s business interests may be important,” Orr said Saturday, “I would submit to you that the interests of thousands of everyday, working-class Texans are just as important.”
Source: The Dallas Morning News
