Fairfield Lake State Park Sold to Todd Interests for Luxury Homes

Fairfield Lake State Park could be closed to the public and replaced with mansions for millionaires.

The state park southeast of Dallas is expected to close Feb. 28 after longtime property owners Vistra Energy agreed to sell it to luxury development firm Todd Interests, the Dallas Morning News reported. Vistra has leased the land to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department at no cost since 1976.

The 1,460 acre park sits alongside a 2,400 acre lake and is a popular recreational destination for fishing, camping, hiking and horseback riding. Todd Interests, who is developing high-end projects in Downtown Dallas, such as the National and East Quarter, plans to build a luxury gated single-family home community with a golf course, the DMN reported.

The park sits triangulated between Dallas, Houston and Austin, making it a premiere real estate attraction to developers. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Vistra listed the property for sale in 2021 with a $110 million price tag.

The land will no longer be leased to the state or open to the public, Todd Interests CEO Shawn Todd said. The company didn’t comment further.

“It is crystal clear that the developer plans to close down the park,” said Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. “To lose a gem like Fairfield Lake; it’s just horrible.”

Some elected officials are pushing Vistra to continue to work with the state on a new lease agreement.

“Texas cannot lose a state park to development,” state Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican and chairman of the state’s water, agriculture and rural affairs committee, said. “Some 80,000 hardworking Texans will lose a place of solitude, sport fishing and priceless memory making if the park is closed.”

A Republican state representative from Itasca, Angelia Orr, wants to use eminent domain to block the development, the Dallas Morning News reported.

While the single-family market in North Texas has cooled off amid interest-rate hikes towards the end of last year, the luxury market has remained strong. A demand for high-end home communities near Texas’s major metros has developers shelling out for land on the edges of Dallas, Houston and Austin.

Demand for housing is high, but many Texans are not happy to see a state park bulldozed for a community that is meant to be exclusive. Texas ranks 35th in the nation for state-park acreage per capita, according to a report by the nonprofit Environment Texas Research and Policy Center. The report states Texas has 8 million more people than Florida with 86,000 fewer acres of public parkland.

“This is an unprecedented loss of a state treasure for Texans,” said David Yoskowitz, executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife. “The demand for outdoor recreation exceeds supply in Texas, so losing even one state park is a set-back for all of us who enjoy publicly accessible lands.”

—Erick Pirayesh