The contentious battle for Fairfield Lake State Park comes to an end quite uneventfully.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) announced December 5th that they will no longer pursue seizure of the property owned by Todd Interests by eminent domain.

The saga began over two years ago with the expiration of a 50-year lease. TPWD had been leasing 1,800 of the 5,000 acres for the State Park from energy company Vistra Corp.

Vistra offered to sell the acreage to TPWD. However, they only wanted 1,800. Vistra was not interesting in parsing out only a part of it.

February 2023, Todd Interests purchased the entire 5,000 acres.

In June, TPWD sought to take the property by eminent domain.

August 13th, three judge appointed commissioners set the value of the property at $418.3 million.

TPWD was now faced with a large financial hurdle to jump over. Ultimately, they decided not to go further. In doing so, TPWD Executive Director, David Yoskowitz, stated that they “must manage the State’s fiscal resources in order to maximize the benefit for all Texas Parks.”

The State and Todd Interests agreed to dismiss the condemnation case and “all other pending matters between them related to the property” including Todd Interests’ lawsuit stemming from open-records requests the firm submitted for documentation of internal and external communications from TPWD. Further, both parties are responsible for their own legal fees, expenses, and other expenditures, as reported by the Dallas Morning News.

Shawn Todd, CEO of Todd Interests, provided the following statement to The ‘Times’ regarding their decision, “It is a tribute to the undaunting courage of the elected Freestone County officials, who stood with unwavering resolve against former appointed TPWD leadership that enacted policy that was against, not only the State legislature, but the inherent rights of all Texas property owners.”

One of those elected officials, Freestone County Precinct 3 Commissioner Lloyd Lane, contributed this, “The State of Texas decision to stop exercising its power of eminent domain is great news to all private property owners in this state.

“It was wrong from the start, considering one of the Constitutional Limitations for eminent domain is property ‘must be NECESSARY for public use.’ Like the difference in ‘want and need.’

“It is also great news for the taxpayers of Freestone County, as revenue from this property will positively affect our law enforcement, first responders, county services, hospital and schools and will not have a negative impact on property values surrounding the 5000 acres.

“I am very proud Texans voted for and approved Proposition 14 last month and hope new parks are developed, as well as, existing parks protected.”

The 5,000 acres, now named Freestone Club & Golf, will become a high end, gated community with multi-million dollar homes and all the amenities one would expect from such a lavish area.

Last week’s edition of The ‘Times’ reported on the projected windfall Freestone County government, Fairfield ISD, the Hospital Board and the City of Fairfield stand to gain with this new enterprise here.

It is with sadness that many will now have only their memories of days spent swimming, camping, hiking, and spotting a Bald Eagle now and then.

Mary McDonald reporting.