Developer Todd Interests criticized the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in a sharply worded letter, expressing “surprise” at the state’s move to retake a state park the company recently purchased.
The state is condemning the site and buying it by expropriating the domain name KSAT report.
“Is this how you deliver on Governor Abbott’s promise of ‘Texas is open for business’?” the letter asked.
Fairfield State Park in Freestone County closed in February after the Dallas-based company put the property under contract for a $1 billion resort that would include a golf course and 400 single-family homes .
Since the park opened in 1976, Vistra Energy and its predecessors have leased free to the state of Texas property in Freestone County, whose 2,400-acre lake was built for a coal-fired power plant. When Vistra closed its factory and moved in in 2018, the state government had the option to purchase the 5,000-acre park. The state rejected its option again in 2020, when Vistra was preparing to put it on the market, the letter said.
The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife “expresses no interest in acquiring all of the land or lakes, nor does it have the funds to purchase the land leased by TPWD,” the letter reads.
According to its website, Todd Interests often gets “out-of-the-box real estate opportunities.”The company found out that Fairfield State Park was for sale because of an article in the Dallas Morning News Stories about going public October 2021.
According to the letter, the company closed the acquisition on June 1 and construction equipment has been transferred to the site.
Officials with the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife disputed the allegations, saying the department made repeated attempts to purchase Lake Fairfield State Park and took unconventional steps to negotiate a deal that would benefit Todd’s interests while protecting public assets. result. They offered a $25 million contract that would allow the department to buy the park from Vistra Corp.
But Todd said the written offer was received on May 12, eight months after the company met with Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Beaver Applin.
“Chairman Aplin has made no secret of his desire for our deal to fail, and after we refused to simply walk away from our business deal, he has repeatedly threatened and apparently orchestrated multiple failed legislative actions that, in our view, He told a lot of lies,” the letters state.
Two proposals in the Texas legislature aimed at stopping the development failed to make it out of Texas Senate and House committees.
“We’ve heard from Texans and state leaders who have told us unequivocally that they want Lake Fairfield State Park to remain open for public recreation and enjoyment, not closed for exclusive use. TPWD’s Mission Forces us to try to save not only the park, but one of our state’s best fisheries. On June 10 at 10:30 a.m., commissioners will meet to consider our options for doing so.”
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Todd said exercising eminent domain in this situation would send an anti-Texan message to the world.
“A nation once considered a pioneer in private property rights will now disenfranchise its citizens and undercut the rights of sellers, buyers, and private property owners with every order,” the letter reads.
