Subject: Newsletter #3 from the Liberty Hill River Organization [4 September 2008]

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In this issue:

1) County Votes to Buy Southern Park Option
2) County chooses Southern Route
3) Eminent domain next step?

1) County votes to buy the Southern park option

The Austin American Statesman reported today that the Williamson County Commissioner's court voted 3-1 to purchase 1,011 acres bordering on the South San Gabriel River (see Park Purchase News Story).

Williamson County to purchase 1,011 acres for future park New park would be the largest public park in the county. By Melissa Mixon AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Williamson County commissioners voted Tuesday to purchase 1,011 acres of land that will serve as the county's largest park The county plans to buy the property, which is on the South San Gabriel River south of Liberty Hill and has rolling hills, and live oak and cedar trees, for roughly $10.6 million, $2 million less than what commissioners originally planned to spend on another park site north of Liberty Hill. The 1,011 acres are owned by Andrew Williams and his two siblings, who inherited the land that their father bought in 1940. That smaller 865-acre site was offered for $12.5 million after Austin developer Joe Birdwell approached the county several months ago about buying the land. Birdwell bought the land three years ago and planned to build as many as 1,500 homes on it, but the project was put on hold because of the declining housing market. Commissioners said the 1,011 acres south of Liberty Hill was a better deal. "I'm rounding numbers, but this is 200 acres more and $2 million less, which I think is a big statement," County Judge Dan A. Gattis said about the new park site. Commissioners voted 3-1 to purchase the land, with Commissioner Valerie Covey opposing the purchase. Commissioner Lisa Birkman recused herself because her family is distantly related to the landowners. Covey did not comment on her dissenting vote. Birkman has said in the past that she did not want the county to spend the bulk of its $22 million in park bond money on one piece of property. Doing that, Birkman said, would take away from other park projects in the county. ...see Park Purchase News Story for the rest...

This new park is on the South bank of the river about 1/2 mile upstream from the Blue Hole swimming area at the Martha Chapman dam.

At the open house on August 4th, Cynthia Long said that the park purchase and the Highway 29 expansion had nothing to do with one another. So in theory this vote doesn't give us any clue as to which Highway 29 option they will choose.

2) The Commissioner's Court announced their decision on Wednesday. The expansion of highway 29 will include a Southern Loop.

They did reduce the width of the planned right-of-way to 300 feet, and reducing the total number of lanes from 10 to 8. But that is small comfort to those families whose land will be split by the new roadway.

Along with the supporting documents released, they included a transportation plan for the whole county that shows that CR-279 will be expanded to a four lane road (along with CR's 200, 202, 214, 236, 247, 254 and FM 3405. RR 2338 is listed as a 5 lane road in the new plan).

From the Austin American Statesman:

Construction of Texas 29 is not expected to begin for 20 to 25 years, Long said, but the county wants to have a plan in place and land in hand before the need arises. "We'd rather be buying dirt than buying dirt and buildings," Long said. "Every day we wait will have an impact on more people and the bottom line." The county chose the route for the Texas 29 expansion -- from just west of Georgetown to the Burnet County line -- after a yearlong, $2.4 million engineering study of potential routes. The county had also sought input from residents along the proposed routes. The route follows the existing Texas 29 route except for the bypass around Liberty Hill and the 3,900 residents in and around the city. Dozens of possible routes north and south of the city were considered, but Long and Commissioner Valerie Covey on Wednesday said the southern route was chosen because there are fewer residents and businesses in the area.

In other words, if you own dirt on the planned route, they don't want you to put a building there.

3) I've talked with lots of property owners in Liberty Hill, and no one has spoken in favor of a highway 29 bypass. So that raises the question, What happens if no one wants to sell their 300' strip of land for this road?

To quote from Sandra Allen of the FWHA:

Re: Preservation of corridors and the effects to property values Sandra E. Allen, FHWA, Texas Division Office, Sandra. Allen@fhwa.dot.gov 03/09/2004 09:11 AM ...The protective purchase option is a good one for a limited number of parcels. However, if anyone reading this is thinking about corridor preservation on a long corridor, it is limited...

You see, so far they've only announced that they plan to build a road somewhere. They will soon vote to authorize the voluntary purchase of land where the owners are willing. But they can't offer a premium for anybody's land. That means none of these "voluntary sales" are a win for the owner. At best they break even by selling some of their land at "fair market value".

If you want to sell your land at market price, all you have to do is put an ad in the paper!

So what's next?

For the corridor preservation to work, the county needs to buy most of the land at today's prices. They need to prevent us from chopping our land into pieces and building on it. But they can't actually limit the use of our land without effecting a "taking" under the 4th amendment.

Cynthia Long told the Austin-American Statesman that the county can't use eminent domain right now. That's true. But the state is already looking at other states (such as Florida) where the state can condemn land for corridor preservation:

LEGAL AUTHORITY/TOOLS FOR CORRIDOR PRESERVATION BY DOT OR OTHERWISE Update: PA Requested by: Texas Survey Deadline: April 22, 2008 Background: research products on the issue of transportation corridor preservation are somewhat dated. See "Report of the AASHTO Task Force on Corridor Preservation" (1990). See also "Corridor Preservation Case Studies", sponsored by the American Planning Association and released in May, 2000, which primarily surveyed local government planning departments. Texas DOT wishes to obtain updated information on existing state legal authority for, or initiatives toward, the preservation of transportation corridors for future use. Does the law of your state provide any authority, tools or techniques for the interim or permanent preservation of transportation corridors for future use, separate and apart or beyond any hardship or protective purchase acquisition authority? If so, what is the nature of the transportation corridor preservation authority or tool? If possible, please provide a statutory authority for any such authority or tool. John Campbell jcampbel@dot.state.tx.us Beth Naumann (512) 416-2918 bnauman@dot.state.tx.us Response from Florida: FDOT's only tool for preservation of transportation corridors is advance right of way acquisition. FDOT has very broad statutory authority to advance acquire right of way by purchase or condemnation. Advance right of way may be acquired on a project or parcel by parcel basis. Funding is the only constraint.

Look at that, again...Texas has no laws that allow the state to purchase property for "corridor preservation", so they surveyed other states to get ideas about how to do it. Florida's answer is to allow the state to condemn land to preserve it for future roads.

It's not ominous...the County is very clear about their goal: to build a road sometime in the future and to save money by buying the land today at a lower value.

But every dollar the County saves is a dollar they would be paying the future owner of the land. Every restriction they put on what you can do with your land is a "taking" of your property.

--Michael Mauldin, editor

web: LibertyHillRiver.ORG
email: info@libertyhillriver.org
post: PO Box 1150, Liberty Hill, TX 78642
phone: 484-7715