Texas senator files second bill to use eminent domain on Fairfield Lake State Park

A Texas senator has filed a bill seeking to allow the state to seize the Fairfield Lake State Park land, a week after the park closed to the public in preparation for its sale to a private developer.

State Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican from Georgetown, filed the bill on Monday.

“Importantly, the park’s impending development will forever compromise our state’s precious land, water, and wildlife,” Schwertner wrote in a statement. “Protecting the public’s interest in Fairfield is a top priority of mine this legislative session.”

Fairfield Lake State Park is an 1,800-acre park in Freestone County, about halfway between the Metroplex and Houston. The park closed at the end of February, nearly 50 years after it first opened to the public. The state had leased the land from a private owner who is selling the property to Dallas-based development firm Todd Interests.

The developer plans to transform the park and surrounding acreage into a gated community of multimillion dollar homes. Todd Interests may also have plans to sell water from Fairfield Lake to the parched Metroplex, the Star-Telegram previously reported.

Residents and lawmakers alike have balked at the loss of the park, particularly in the 100th anniversary year of the founding of Texas’ state park system.

On Feb. 14, state Rep. Angelia Orr (R-Itasca) filed a bill in the state House seeking to give the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department the go-ahead to seize the state park property under eminent domain. (Eminent domain is a legal concept that allows a entity to seize property for public use, although the private owner of the property still has to be compensated for the property.)

Schwertner’s bill, which is the Senate companion to Orr’s bill, pushes forward the idea of using eminent domain on the park land.

Both bills still have a long journey toward possible passage. Neither has been voted on in committee or by their respective chambers. But Emilio Longoria — an assistant law professor who specializes in eminent domain at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio — previously told the Star-Telegram that the state has a legally solid case for using eminent domain to take the park land.

“The right to take would be very difficult to challenge here,” Longoria said in February.

But eminent domain is a politically thorny issue for many politicians and for their constituents, particularly in Texas, where many voters place a high value on private property rights.

The Fairfield Lake State Park saga has become a statewide debate. The park’s fate has drawn attention in legislative hearings and spurred Gov. Greg Abbott to comment.

State Sen. Tan Parker, a Flower Mound lawmaker, plans to file a bill that would create a “deal closing fund” that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department could use to acquire new park land. He previously told the Star-Telegram that the funds could also be used to acquire Fairfield Lake State Park, but said acquisition decisions would be up to state officials.

A representative of Todd Interests said at a legislative hearing last week that the developer has every intent to move forward with plans to turn the park land into a private neighborhood. But with eminent domain on the table, and more legislative hearings scheduled, the fate of the Fairfield Lake State Park land remains unclear.