Amid months of tug-of-war with the state, Todd Interests has moved ahead with its plans to build an upscale community and resort on what was once Fairfield Lake State Park.
Construction teams have begun building roads at the site in Freestone County, a first step toward converting the 5,000-acre property — including the 1,800-acre park previously leased to the state — into a high-end subdivision with a golf course, according to The Texas Tribune.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, developer Shawn Todd and his partners purchased the land from Vistra Corp.
However, since the project was announced, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) has been suggesting it might seize the property using eminent domain. TPWD declined to purchase the land in 2018 and 2020.
More recently, TPWD made Todd Interests two offers for the land, one of which the developer declined. The company has until August 17 to take the second offer or not.
“I can’t speak to what [Todd Interests is] thinking at the moment, but I can say from our side that we would certainly like to come to an agreement and avoid having to move through that [court] process,” said Cory Chandler, TPWD deputy communications director, according to The Texas Tribune.
Todd Interests has been adamant about not wanting to sell the property and is critical of the state’s moves to block development.
“[TPWD] tried to interfere with the contractual rights of private parties through threats, intimidation and misstatement of facts, trying to purchase the property for less than we were paying,” Todd Interests wrote in a statement to The Dallas Express on June 6, after the first offer had been made. “A state once considered the vanguard of private property rights would now take from its citizens and diminish the rights of sellers, buyers, and private-property owners of every order.”
The sums offered by TPWD for the land have not been disclosed, but the Texas Legislature has earmarked $125 million of taxpayer money for park acquisitions.
Todd Interests purchased the property for $110.5 million.
The tussle between Todd Interests and TPWD has recently seen a shift in loyalties among local leaders.
Freestone County commissioners, who previously supported efforts to save the park, wrote in a letter in June that the eminent domain push was an “abuse of power and government overreach,” according to the Texas Tribune.
“I hate for us to miss out on a tax base, and I hate for us to see a violation of property rights,” Commissioner Lloyd Lane said at a July meeting, citing an estimate of $20 million in annual tax revenue to be gained from the development.