Eminent domain at Fairfield Lake State Park: threat to Texas landowners or good move? | Opinion
Property owners, you could be next
Recent coverage of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission authorizing the state to use eminent domain to take private property from a rightful owner should concern all Texans. (June 14, 2A, “Texas developer has few options left in Fairfield Lake fight”)
Fairfield Lake State Park has always been on private property. The state has leased the land for 50 years. Texas had ample opportunity to buy the property when the former landowner put it up for sale. Development company Todd Interests purchased the land when the state declined to.
Comments by Parks and Wildlife commissioners ring hollow. If they wanted to buy it, they had the chance. Whining after the fact and then invoking eminent domain to take the property reeks of heavy-handed government.
This will certainly end up in court, costing taxpayers even more money. Private property owners should take note.
- Steve Himes, Fort Worth
Eminent domain against land abuse
Hallelujah! The bees, birds and butterflies, along with Texas residents, finally get a long overdue win now that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission used eminent domain to seize Fairfield Lake State Park from a developer.
Those Goliath developers have been clear-cutting old-growth forests and bulldozing prairies to build apartments and houses for years, with very little regulation.
Maybe if the fines were raised to $1 million for cutting down a 100-year-old tree, those developers would begin to see the wonders of nature in a whole new light.
- Sharon Austry, Fort Worth
Trump’s misdeeds just don’t matter?
Donald Trump always was and still is a national security risk. Consider his obstruction and lax hoarding of classified documents, his pathological lying, his admiration of murderous dictators, his disrespect and shaking down of our democratic allies, his wanting to get our nation out of NATO and his coup plot.
Republicans know all of his national security transgressions and know there will be even more if he is reelected. It blows my mind. I’ll never understand Trump supporters.
- Blake K. Wallace, Arlington
I don’t see any difference here
Think about something for a minute: Joe Biden stole — yes, I said stole — classified documents when he was a U.S. senator. Senators have no right to have classified documents. Biden was caught and just said, hey, sorry about that. The Justice Department said, OK, no problem.
Now, does anyone see a difference in how the department treats Republicans and Democrats?
- Gene Tignor, Emory
This can’t end well for Trump
It is unfortunate that the vast majority of Republicans have come to the defense of Donald Trump. His 37-count indictment is an example of thorough case preparation that will lead to his criminal conviction and the collapse of the Republican Party.
Leslie J. Smith, Grapevine
Mattie Parker right on Pride badge
In regard to the June 11 letter to the editor (4C) chastising Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker for the removal of a Pride badge from a summer reading challenge: It’s a minority of individuals who would approve of their children reading about Pride month. Children are children and don’t have a clue about issues surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity. Let them be children, and they can figure things out when they are old enough.
- Sandra Lewis, Joshua