Texas moves to halt $1B development by condemning state park

Over the objections of Todd Interests, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission on Saturday maneuvered to retake a 5,000-acre state park the developer recently purchased.

The commission voted to condemn Fairfield Lake State Park, a precursor to the state to obtain the land through eminent domain, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, chairman of the commission, said the use of eminent domain was a last-ditch effort to save “a beloved state park,” the outlet said.

Fairfield Lake in Freestone County closed in February, after the Dallas-based firm put the property under contract, with plans to build a $1 billion luxe resort with a golf course and 400 single-family homes.

Vistra Energy and its predecessors had leased the Freestone County property, whose 2,400-acre lake was created for a coal-fired power plant, to the state of Texas at no cost since the park opened in 1976. When Vistra closed its plant and moved in 2018, it gave the state the option to buy the 5,000-acre park. The state again rejected its option in 2020, when Vistra was preparing to put it on the market.

In a letter to the commission last week, Todd blasted the state’s efforts to halt the development.

“Is this how you fulfill Governor Abbott’s promise that ‘Texas is wide open for business’?” the letter asks, noting the state did not exercise its previous options to purchase the land.

The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, “said it had no interest in acquiring all of the land or the lake and did not have the funds to purchase the land TPWD had leased,” the letter states.

The developer found out Fairfield State Park was for sale because the Dallas Morning News published a story about the listing in October 2021.

The firm closed on the property on June 1 and construction equipment had already moved onto the site. 

— Ted Glanzer