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This Texas state park may soon be replaced with multimillion-dollar homes

A Texas state park that has been open to the public for nearly 50 years may soon be turned into a gated development of multi-million dollar homes, potentially alongside a private golf course.

Fairfield Lake State Park is an 1,800-acre state park in Freestone County, about halfway between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and the city of Houston. But while the land has been publicly accessible since the 1970s, the property isn’t owned by the state of Texas. The state instead leases the land from the current owner, Vistra Corp. The company, through its subsidiary Luminant, operated a power plant nearby until the plant’s closure several years ago.

After closing the plant, Vistra placed the 5,000 acres – including the state park and the 2,400-acre Fairfield Lake – on the market for $110 million.

The Star-Telegram reported in late January that Vistra was in talks to sell the land to a private developer who planned to terminate the state’s lease on the park land.

“For 50 … years, it’s been open to the public and then now just all of a sudden, ‘Nope, no more.’ It’s sad,” said Angela Oglesbee, a member of the local historical commission who has campaigned to keep the park open.

The prospective buyer is the Dallas-based real estate development firm Todd Interests, founded by Shawn Todd. The firm has headed up a number of development projects in Dallas, including the East Quarter development, which D Magazine described as “the largest-ever historical adaptive reuse development in Texas.”

Todd did not respond to several requests for comment. But, according to officials who have sat in meetings with Todd, the developer plans to transform the Fairfield state park land into a high-end community.

One official said that community would be gated — meaning that the public that has used the park land wouldn’t even be able to take a drive through the property anymore.

Fairfield Lake State Park, in Freestone County, has been open to the public since 1976. But under a pending sale of the land to a developer, the park could soon close.
Fairfield Lake State Park, in Freestone County, has been open to the public since 1976. But under a pending sale of the land to a developer, the park could soon close.

State Sen. Charles Perry — a Republican from Lubbock who chairs the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture & Rural Affairs — said he understands the planned development to be a gated community of multi-million dollar homes.

When the plans were described to Perry, he said, he understood it to be a “small community, Horseshoe Bay-kind of thing,” comparing it to the developments in the small city just outside Austin.

Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, the founder of Buc-ee’s and chairman of the state Parks and Wildlife Commission, recounted a similar description. Aplin said that Todd outlined a plan to build a development of homes that each sit on a large plat of land. Aplin described the development vision as a neighborhood of “ranchettes,” with a hefty price tag attached to each home.

The median price would be “millions,” Aplin said.

“By no means affordable homes,” he said. “Very, very high-end, second-home kind of thing.”

Todd, according to Aplin, also floated the idea of building a private golf course to go alongside the development.

That plan, if it materializes, would be a significant shift for the local residents who have enjoyed the park for decades.

“I really have never thought of (the park) being a private development. I just always thought it would be a state park,” said Oglesbee, the member of the local historical commission.

Linda Mullen, who has lived in the city of Fairfield since the 1970s, said that losing the state park would be the second time in the past few years that the city has lost a major local player on that land. In 2018, when the plant closed, it took with it many jobs, including the jobs of Mullen’s husband and son.

The plant closure “was like a death” to Fairfield residents, Mullen said. “I know there was a lot of environmental concerns and everything, but it’s your way of life.”

And the state park — where residents have camped, bicycled and walked over the decades — would be a big loss, too.

“It’s just kind of like a part of your life will be gone,” Mullen said.

The closure of the park would have an economic impact on the area, said Freestone County Judge Linda Grant. The park drew in more than 82,000 visitors last year — visitors who may have also stopped in town and spent money at local establishments.

The park “is a great tourist attraction, and they visit our little stores and restaurants and buy gas,” Grant said.

Grant said she’s heard from numerous residents who are concerned about the park closure, and she hasn’t heard from any residents who support it.

“I know we’re a small county, but it’s important to us,” Grant said of the park.

State officials have said that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department didn’t have the funds to purchase the whole plot until recently, after money from the 2019 sporting goods tax amendment began making its way to the department’s coffers. And Vistra, according to both the state and the company, was not interested in selling only the state park portion of the land.

Vistra, for its part, has emphasized that it provided the land to the state of Texas for 50 years, without charging for the lease.

“We have received no compensation,” Vistra spokesperson Meranda Cohn previously told the Star-Telegram in an email. “The company has continued to be responsible for the upkeep of the lake, dam, and property taxes.”

State Rep. Ken King — a Republican from the city of Canadian who was the chair of the House’s Culture, Recreation & Tourism Commission until this week — spoke about the park at a late January meeting of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. King unequivocally denounced the sale to a private developer.

Vistra benefited from its partnership with the state through its utility efforts, King said. And, with the sale of this land, they’ll make money again.

“They’re gonna make a huge profit at the expense of the state of Texas,” King said at the meeting. “I think it’s categorically wrong, and I’m going to fight it the whole way.”

King told the Star-Telegram that he feels somewhat torn about the property. As a “dyed-in-the-wool capitalist,” he said, he believes in Vistra’s right to sell its private property. But over the years, that property has been outfitted with about $70 million in improvements, all with taxpayer money, according to figures from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“I just don’t think it’s right that Vistra can sell that property out from under the state and take those taxpayer-funded improvements and make a profit off it,” King said.

State officials now say that they have the money to buy the whole 5,000-acre property, and they’re hoping that Todd Interests will still consider stepping aside and allowing the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to purchase the property.

The conditions — attempting to purchase a property that’s already under contract — are less than ideal for the state.

King told the Star-Telegram that the state has some culpability in creating the current situation. “We were late to the game,” he said.

Perry, the state senator, said he doesn’t necessarily blame the people who approved the land lease agreement back in the 1970s, although some type of right-of-first-refusal clause could’ve benefited the state in its current situation.

But he does wish that the situation was brought to legislators’ attention sooner than it was.

“I think there was just a presumption that, first of all, nobody would ever sell a park out from under the state and there wouldn’t be a buyer for a park out from under the state,” he said.

Perry said he didn’t hear about any potential issues until around October.

“I’m disappointed in that we probably could’ve done this differently,” Perry said. “But hindsight’s always 20/20. Always.”