Find out what’s happening in eminent domain news around Texas.
Trump administration has acquired little of the private land in Texas it needs for border barrier
Source: The Washington Post
The Trump administration has acquired just 16 percent of the private land in Texas it needs to build the president’s border barrier, casting doubt on his campaign promise to complete nearly 500 miles of new fencing by the end of next year, according to the latest construction data obtained by The Washington Post.
And of the 166 miles of border barrier the U.S. government is planning to build in Texas, new construction has been completed along just 2 percent of that stretch a year before the target completion date, according to the construction data.
The Long Battle to Stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline
Source: Texas Observer
For months, locals and landowners have tried to stop the Permian Highway Pipeline, a piece of infrastructure connecting West Texas’ prolific oil fields to the state’s Gulf Coast refineries. But they’re running out of options.
The Permian Highway Pipeline is part of a larger industrial race to build the infrastructure necessary to connect Texas’ oil fields to refineries. But area residents and local governments fear that if Kinder Morgan is successful in ramming its $2 billion pipeline project through the Hill Country, more pipelines will soon follow, creating a new industrial corridor right through the heart of the state’s porous hills of limestone and a part of Texas that has largely managed to avoid extraction infrastructure.
UNT takes next steps in Avenue C eminent domain cases
Source: Denton Record-Chronicle
The University of North Texas has officially started the eminent domain process to acquire four properties near campus.
The move comes four months after university officials sent offer letters to buy the following: 903 Kendolph St., site of Eagle Car Wash; 902 Ave. C, home to Campus Bookstore; 906 Ave. C, home to New York Sub Hub and Naranja Cafe; and 1000 Ave. C, the site of Oriental Express.
Value of trees disputed in land condemnation in Katy
Source: Houston Chronicle
Three Fort Bend County property owners met Monday, Oct. 21, as members of a Special Commission appointed by Fort Bend Count-Court at Law 3 to conduct a hearing after which they awarded $44,000 in damages to a Katy man in a condemnation lawsuit filed against him by the North Fort Bend Water Authority.
Transit agency seeks to acquire Coppell business property for Silver Line project
Source: Community Impact Newspaper
A longtime Coppell-based auto shop may be displaced because of its location along a future North Texas passenger rail line.
Soto’s Automotive is located along the planned path of Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Silver Line project, which will provide east-west connectivity from Plano to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport once complete in 2022. DART plans to acquire the land the auto shop sits on for the 26-mile rail line, according to the transit agency.
The DART board of directors signaled early approval to allow the agency to acquire the parcels using eminent domain, if necessary.
