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A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

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Re: A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

#281

Post by jorblumesea »

xp84 wrote: post #273
arjie wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was unclear from this summary but there are a few parties here: the original farmer A, the neighbouring family B, the city C, and the datacenter builder D. A sold to C with the deed restriction C sold to D without the restriction B tried to sue to stop D from building the datacenter, but B has no standing. Okay, that makes sense. It seems to me that A or C has standing, but not B. And depending on the way it's wri…

It's worse (in terms of complexity and therefore chances of arriving at justice). From the article: July 7, 1999 – A granted the land to (T) Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation, a public trust, for $10 on the condition it be used as a park, 2003 - T granted the land to (W) Williamson County Park Foundation, 2003, one month later, W gave the land to the (C) City of Taylor, 2008 - C sold the land to E (Taylor EDC) fo…

if you've ever bought and sold a house, you will know people who look at deeds and titles aren't very detail oriented. they even have title insurance because it happens so often.

Re: A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

#285

Post by FireBeyond »

SwellJoe wrote: post #264
Innittech wrote: post #260

Are deeds with conditions like that legal in that jurisdiction?

Except when they violate civil rights (i.e. "whites only" deed restrictions are not enforceable, though they do exist), I think the answer would generally be yes. In some places in Texas, there is no zoning, only deed restrictions, Houston being the largest city where that's so, though that has evolved a bit and the city does have more say about land use than in the past. Anyway, deed restrictions run with the land a…

> Except when they violate civil rights (i.e. "whites only" deed restrictions are not enforceable, though they do exist)

In my deeply blue city in my deeply blue city there were several HOAs with covenants around "non-whites" could only live in servants quarters on property, etc.

These clauses and covenants were non-enforceable, but when my city went after the HOAs to physically remove the clauses, they still encountered pockets of resistance, from "historical significance" to "what's the point, they're unenforceable" to "ugh, we'd have to hire attorneys to do that" to the point where the city had to announce sanctions ranging from fines up to investigating the possibility of forcible dissolution of the HOA.

Unenforceable or not, picture how welcome you'd feel as a POC reading that in the HOA covenants for a prospective home purchase.

Re: A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

#286

Post by SwellJoe »

arjie wrote: post #43
helterskelter wrote: post #3

Wow they had the condition that the land be used as a park baked into the deed when they sold it to the city for $10, the city sold it, and when the family went to court their suit was dismissed. Now their home is worthless because nobody wants to live next to a data center. When are we going to hold local government officials accountable for bullshit like this? Send them to prison.

It was unclear from this summary but there are a few parties here: the original farmer A, the neighbouring family B, the city C, and the datacenter builder D. A sold to C with the deed restriction C sold to D without the restriction B tried to sue to stop D from building the datacenter, but B has no standing. Okay, that makes sense. It seems to me that A or C has standing, but not B. And depending on the way it's wri…

In Texas it is exactly the neighbors who have standing to sue over deed restrictions violations.

Re: A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

#287

Post by SwellJoe »

order-matters wrote: post #189
jjk166 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't B have standing? They presumably are residents of and taxpayers to city C, and they face property devaluation stemming from nearby municipal actions.

presumably because it's not their land and if A wanted to build a data center on it to begin with then B could do nothing about it. the key issue is C doing things that it's taxpayers dont want done. in this case though taxpayer money is not being spent, the property is being sold which means money is being generated for the taxpayers, and the new property owner is ultimately A never had the authority to contract the…

"someone can just arbitrarily decide that land cannot be used?"

Yes, deed restrictions in Texas are contractual obligations that run with the land. Due diligence in acquiring land in Texas involves making sure existing deed restrictions do not impede your intended use.

Some cities in Texas don't even have zoning (Houston is the largest such city, though it does have some land use controls these days that it historically didn't have), it's deed restrictions all the way down.

Re: A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

#288

Post by preinheimer »

unglaublich wrote: post #282

[flagged]

Lots of endowments come with strings attached. We made a charitable donation to a local university for them to buy some specific science outreach equipment, they bought it.

This all seems reasonable to me. If you want my money or things, you’ll have to use them like I suggest.

Re: A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

#289

Post by ionwake »

Rumour was an old lady donated posthumously alot of money she had saved up her whole life, to build a university at Estepona in Spain.

After she died they never built it. The town remains pretty much the same as it always was.

Last time I was there they had replaced the red marble promenade that was cracked on the beach with some sort of rubber playground cement, and for some reason that I can only put down to malice, built a large statue that resembles a rat about 8 feet tall and placed it at the intersection of the promenade with the town center, where there used to be old spanish men and youths playing on many free foosball tables

Bear in mind this fishing town is next to Marbella perhaps the richest destination in the mediterranean.

Its almost as if as a child I fell asleep and woke up in a nightmare, when I visited.

Fortunately they left what remains of the old town alone and its still a beautiful (in parts) tourist destination.

Re: A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center

#290

Post by SwellJoe »

ultrarunner wrote: post #209
jjk166 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't B have standing? They presumably are residents of and taxpayers to city C, and they face property devaluation stemming from nearby municipal actions.

They don't have standing on the deed restriction, and would have to sue for the property devaluation directly. IANAL.

That's not true. In Texas the neighbors are exactly the people who have standing to sue for deed restrictions violations.
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