Posted on 06/09/2026 6:54:05 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Back in 1999, 87 acres of land in Taylor, Texas, was donated (nominal fee $10) to the city by a farmer, with a condition in the deed that it would be used for community parkland. In 2025, the land was sold for $10M to a data center developer, who has won several legal battles against the nearby residents who are trying to stop the massive construction project, reports 404 Media. Now, the disgruntled locals are planning to take their case to an appeals court.
To introduce this case, let’s go back to 1999, when the $10 deed was inked. For some background, 404 Media talked to long-time local Pamela Griffin, who used to play on the farmland, and watched her children grow up and enjoy the same freedom. Griffin recalled that old farmer Mr. Bland used to talk to her father from time to time. According to her, Bland once said to her dad, “I see the kids don’t really have nowhere to play.” He continued, “I’m thinking about giving this land for parkland because these kids need somewhere to play.” The original July 1999 deed has since been unearthed, and the farmer did indeed follow through with his words. Now, let’s make the following chain of events simple using a bullet point timeline:
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at tomshardware.com ...
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It would be interesting to know if they managed to somehow change the deed to remove that park requirement.
That process could then be used to remove eco restrictions on many land parcels.
Laws with deeds involve a lot of common law stuff so is hard to follow.
But if you could get eco restrictions off property with tricks like this, I’d call the situation a “win-win”.
Trust me, I’m from the government
Before anyone donates any land or anything else to any city or other government entity, go down to a city council meeting and watch them in action. See who is in charge of the disposition of your land. Or go to the government department in charge of managing whatever you are going to donate and see who works there and will be managing whatever you donate. They are small-minded politicians and government drones. They won’t be respecting your wishes much more than a year or two after you make the donation. After that, whatever you donate will just be part of the pot of assets that they can use to enrich themselves and make their own lives easier. If turning the land into a data center gets them re-elected, its going to get turned into a data center.
Hmm. Caveat emptor for sure but caveat donor too.
Or if gets them bribe money.
1. New tax money goes to Town which can increase their budget by creating new departments, hiring cronies, etc.
2. New dada center uses more resources, (police fire roads, etc) and so has to increase taxes on residents.
Citizens get screwed again!
Dumb for effectively giving it away without a plan in place.
We have the same thing locally where a farmer donated 185 acres to the county, so the land could be farmed and the produce used to feed the folks at the county home. Sounds quaint……..and not very workable.
The current county administration is leasing the farmland for 38k. Of course the folks around there don’t want any development. The county could sell the land for 8k an acre, receive $1.48M for it, the land could still be farmed, the county would get 18k a year on the discounted farm tax exemption and make 59k a year on interest on the 1.48M.
County governments are not good at business.
$10 gift became $10M for city government, with $30M tax expected over next decade have the city’s electricity prices to skyrocket
Imagine being able to buy it, renovate it...and for at least a few years...functioning as the Winter Whitehouse.
Only God knew this would happen. I'm still in Wonder.
The city that I grew up near took hundreds of acres from my grandparents during the 50s and 60s in separate incidents where they took large amounts of land by eminent domain... always paying far less than the actual market value. Each time they said it was to build a school, or some other worthwhile sounding project. They actually used all the land to build a dump of continually increasing size. Our family was eventually left with 40 acres.
The city let businesses dump chemicals on the land which caused our well to become contaminated. My grandmother died of cancer related to this and everyone in my family has had thyroid problems. Eventually the EPA had to move in and use mostly federal funds to try and clean up the mess and try to clean up the water table by pumping who knows how many millions of gallons were removed by a series of wells around the capped and sealed dump. After about 20 years victory was declared and they stopped doing it. But decades later it is still not safe to drink water from my parent’s well.
.
Hmmm ... my “first” rule: I don’t base my thought processes on the antics of professional buffoons.
You are correct, I would always assume grift first. An envelope full of cash versus having to explain a given action to the voters... cash is king.
Say what you want about Carlin. Yes, he’s a comedian (a buffoon). And I’m not a fan of his comedy because of the vulgarity.
But in this instance, he’s right. Or at the very least, it’s something to seriously consider.
All sorts of people are occasionally right. That doesn't make them generally worth listening to or quoting.
That is all ...
When one gives (donates) something of value to someone else, they give up ownership of the asset. The receiver can then do what they want to with it.
A deed is simply putting strings on the gift. The gubbermint (local or higher) can simply ignore the strings.
To force the issue (making gubbermint honor thr terms of the deed) requires money and lawyers. Success is not guaranteed. Sucks, but that’s the way it is.
This is a hard lesson to learn, and one that I have personally experienced.
I have followed your posts in the past, and have enjoyed them. So I’m a bit surprised why you are pushing this so much. I never said that we must follow everything Carlin said (he had lots of rules).
I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree here.
26 years and no park? Deed should have had a stipulation that the park had to be created within a certain amount of time or the land goes back to the farmer. I’ll bet the farmer’s family is pissed. It’s prime land for a data center. At least two high-voltage lines going through the lot and a reservoir to the NE. Doubtful that the adjacent neighborhood (off of “E MLK Jr Blvd”…) will prevail with the appeal.
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