ISSUES POLICY Texans Collaborate for Property Rights
By Richard Thorpe, president, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association
L
AST MONTH, GERALD NOBLES shared his family’s story about how city annexation
wreaked havoc on the plans he and his family had for their ranch near Midland. The Nobles family invested generations in managing the natural resources of their ranch land, producing beef and being a good neighbor to the city, only to have annexation draped across their land like a smothering blanket, ob- structing their plans for the land and surprising them with the opac- ity of the annexation process. At every ranch gathering and
Cattle Raisers event, I hear heart- breaking stories from landowners who face similar problems. Condemning entities often think they have a good idea for the use of private property that does not belong to them — a pipeline, a road, a school, a power line, water line, city annexation, or other use. Since the use is couched in terms of being for the public good, if the landowner does not want to sell right away, the land is condemned for public use by eminent domain. In the 2015 session of the Texas Legislature, TSCRA
and other landowner groups worked hard to place pro- tections for landowners in the state’s eminent domain laws. We fi nd it unfair that condemning entities offer to buy parcels of land at far below the market price. We fi nd it reprehensible that a condemning authority might imply the landowner must accept a lowball of-
88 The Cattleman December 2016
fer, or face signifi cant legal action. We think it’s wrong that a landowner must often hire an attorney to fi ght for a fair price and then pay attorney fees out of the dollars they should have been offered in the fi rst place. The debate about whether certain entities should
have the power of eminent domain is for another time. Our members see as well as anyone that the popula- tion of Texas is growing. We see more people moving to the country and understand that our new neighbors need roads and energy. However, it is time to give the landowner an equal
say in the process of having their private land taken, supposedly for the public good. TSCRA has a long history of working with our col- leagues and the members of Texas Farm Bureau, Texas
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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