Find out the latest in eminent domain news stories for September 2022:
After a decade of hype, Dallas-Houston bullet train developer faces a leadership exodus as land acquisition slows
Source: The Texas Tribune
A decade after Texas Central High-Speed Railway announced plans for a high speed train linking Dallas and Houston, the project is still in limbo, despite a June ruling by the Texas Supreme Court allowing the company to use eminent domain for its project. By the time the court ruled, Texas Central’s board had reportedly disbanded and its CEO and president had resigned. Land acquisition has all but stopped in the last two years, according to land records reviewed by The Texas Tribune.
While a spokesperson for the company says the project is still in the works, they have declined to answer specific questions about the leadership exodus, land acquisition, funding prospects and status of permits Texas Central needs to move forward.
El Paso Housing Authority fears losing homes due to Bridge of the Americas expansion
Source: KFOX14
Gerald Cichon, the CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, said he fears an expansion plan for the Bridge of the Americas port of entry could displace residents in the nearby affordable housing.
“It looks like it’s [the Paisano Green Community] right in the zone where the expansion would happen and so that would mean tearing down those units and obviously the housing of those 74 families would be in jeopardy,” said Cichon.
Statute Authorizing Landowner to Repurchase Property Taken by Eminent Domain Waives Sovereign Immunity
Source: Texas Civil Justice League
The Dallas Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of a landowner in a dispute with the Texas Department of Transportation over the right to repurchase previously condemned property under Chapter 21, Property Code.
The case arose from a 2011 agreed judgment that TXDOT would pay property owner LBJ/Brookhaven Investors, L.P. $42.5 million for two tracts, a three-acre strip of land for a highway project, plus an additional 22.7 acres for rerouting a natural gas pipeline and staging material and equipment for the highway project. TXDOT completed its project, and then put the 22.7 acres up for sale as surplus property without notifying LBJ/Brookhaven.
