San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
State park at risk of private takeover
FAIRFIELD — State parks are intended to be forever.
State parks are supposed to be places of preservation and posterity. Places to be cherished by generation after generation of Texans and experienced by people from anywhere. Each of the 89 state parks across Texas represents a piece of the distinct ecosystems and vibrant communities that define the state, each a treasure in its own way. The state parks system showcases the very best of Texas.
That system, and the simple but vital idea it embodies, turns 100 years old in 2023. And while the centennial year of Texas state parks is cause for joy and celebration, it is marred by the cruelest of ironies.
Texas is at risk of losing a state park forever.
Fairfield Lake State Park, an 1,800-acre gem overlooking a beautiful 2,400-acre lake, nestled within the convergence of three Texas ecoregions — the Post Oak Savannah, Piney Woods and Blackland Prairies — and along the bustling Interstate 45 corridor between Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, could be lost to private development if a deal is not reached soon to continue the park’s existence.
“We are absolutely, clearly in dire straits of losing our park,” Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Arch “Beaver” Aplin III said during a recent briefing at a commission work session.
Texas owns most of its state parks, but not Fairfield Lake.
The lake was created in 1969 by Dallas Power and Light Co., Texas Electric Service Co. and Texas Power and Light Co. to cool the coal plant Big Brown. Those three companies merged
and eventually became TXU Energy, which eventually conveyed the property to Luminant, a sister company under Vistra Corp. The park property has been leased to the state since 1971, free of cost.
In 2018, Big Brown shut down and Vistra Corp./Luminant gave the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department a twoyear notice that it was going to end the lease. Since then, the lease has been extended, allowing the park to continue operations after 2020.
The park was put up for sale in 2021, and the entire property — the TPWD park, lake and additional land totaling more than 5,000 acres — is currently under contract with a private developer out of Dallas, Todd Interests. The lease with TPWD can be terminated with 120 days of notice, and the park could close as early as this month. Public access to the lake would end, too.
“Vistra and Luminant value our strong partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. We are proud to have made this privately owned land available to generations of Texans for the past 50 years — more than 25 years beyond the original lease and at no cost to the state,” a Vistra spokesperson said, adding that the company partners with TPWD for public access at Martin Creek Lake State Park, Lake Colorado City State Park and hunting lands in Robertson County.
“We look forward to continuing our partnership with TPWD, including our numerous conservation and habitat restoration programs and providing public access … all at no cost to the state of Texas.”
TPWD did not have the money to acquire the park when it was put up for sale, which is listed at over $110 million. Now, though, funds from Proposition 5, which automatically appropriates the full revenue from the portion of the 6.25 percent state sales tax obtained from sporting goods purchases to state parks and historical sites, have given the department more leverage.
“When that passed in 2019, that was a huge change in what the department could do. But it’s only actually been this current legislative biennium that we’ve had that authority and those monies,” said TPWD Executive Director David Yoskowitz, adding that there is now interest in buying the entire property, not just the current park portion.
“We’re working in earnest with the buyer and the seller to see if there’s a way that the state park can still continue to be a part of our state park system and continue to deliver on all the recreational opportunities that are afforded Texans and visitors to the state.”
Despite the hope to buy and eventually expand the park, TPWD remains in a challenging position. The property is under contract, and Aplin said during the commission work session that the buyer is intent on canceling the lease. Todd Interests did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s all hands on deck. It’s very important to us,” Aplin said.
“The irony here of this being our centennial year celebration and losing one of our gem state parks is just absolutely unacceptable to me. Everyone has my word that we will work as hard as we can, but we can only deal with the cards that we’ve been dealt.”
Republican
Rep. Ken King,
chair of the Texas House of Representatives’ culture, recreation and tourism committee during the 2021-22 session, vowed to not let this park go away quietly.
“Texas Power and Light was a regulated utility. Vistra is now going to sell the property they’ve acquired since. They’re not a regulated utility. … There’s almost $70 million of taxpayer-funded improvements on this property. If they were still a tax-regulated utility, that money would have to go back to the ratepayers. That’s not how this works now. They’re going to make a huge profit at the expense of the state of Texas. I think it is categorically wrong, and I’m going to fight it the whole way,” he told the commission.
Losing a park like this to private development would be unprecedented. “To our knowledge, we have not closed any sites,” a TPWD spokesperson said.
Fairfield has 3,000 residents who would feel the economic impact of the park’s disappearance. Last year, 82,000 visitors came to the park. The lake is a world-class fishery for largemouth bass; it’s produced the third-most ShareLunkers in the state. The park hosts two youth and an adult drawn hunts. There are over 10 miles of trails and over a hundred campsites.
“Texas is at significant risk of losing a gem of a state park in Fairfield at a time when demand for recreational opportunities is increasing. We have a thousand more Texans every day, and where this park is located right off of I-45 between the metroplex and Houston services an incredible number of people throughout the state. We’re really concerned about reducing those opportunities for Texans and also the generations of families that have enjoyed the state park and continue wanting to go there,” Yoskowitz said.
TPWD is hoping to work out a deal, but it is running out of time.
So is Fairfield Lake State Park.