Eminent domain continues to be a hot discussion topic among the members of a countywide transportation committee.
Some committee members pointed out all the other members’ relished roundabouts would require property acquisition, making it clear that eminent domain may be a necessary evil in some form or fashion.
The committee hit a wall late last month in trucking its way through an exorbitant list of transportation recommendations after it was decided no projects that would require land acquisition would be discussed until a subcommittee presented its draft policy on major thoroughfare planning and eminent domain. The subcommittee is expected to present its work at the Kendall County, Boerne and Fair Oaks Transpiration Committee’s 2 p.m. Tuesday meeting at Boerne’s city hall.
Eminent domain, land grabs and lines on maps running through private property have been the hazardous holdup on transportation planning in the county for decades, and the conversation was reignited among the committee members late last month when an extension of Adler Road to the Esperanza subdivision, creating an alternate connection from Highway 46 to Adler Road, was addressed.
Committee member Jonah Evans noted his family member owned the property that sat between the two clandestine connection points, and he noted his relative had no intention of selling or developing the property anytime soon.
Bill Kennon and James Drought, the two Herff family descendants who inherited the land north of Boerne High School where Adler Road dead ends, spoke during the meeting earlier this month.
“Texans cherish their property rights even more than the right to bear arms,” Kennon said. “That’s why you see such an uprising when the federal government, or any government entity, starts taking land away from private citizens, especially to benefit private developers. And when Esperanza came to Boerne and said, ‘We want to double the size of Boerne and put 10,000 more people here,’ we warned, lots of the citizens warned that we could not support this big of community without roads, sewers, water.”
Kennon said he is the great-great-grandson of Ferdinand Herff, one Kendall County’s influential founding German immigrants, and he noted the Herff family has been one of the major benefactors of Boerne, having donated land for the high school, the Kendall County Fairgrounds and the Cibolo Center for Conversation.
Kennon said he wasn’t opposed to a line being drawn on a map through his property signifying a road would be developed should he ever develop his property or sell it to a developer.
“So that we’ll have one hill overlooking Boerne that doesn’t have a big mansion by some billionaire or Californian,” Kennon said, explaining why he is putting a conservation easement on his slice of the Herff Ranch’s south pasture. “And we don’t put things in conservation easements just to prevent a road. …
“We do it to preserve our heritage. We do it to preserve open space. We do it because we love Boerne, and we want to keep the culture in Boerne. The reason that people come here is because we have cows right on the city limits grazing, and that’s what the south pasture is.”
Droughtalso said he didn’t object to a line being drawn through his property so long as eminent domain was not enforced to take it. He said he is in the process of obtaining a conservation easement for the property located along Farm-to-Market Road 474, which is currently held under the name Herff Ranch Limited Partnership.
Drought is an attorney in San Antonio specializing oil and gas, wills, estates, real estate, business and commercial litigation, according to his law office website. He is also associated with the Broadway Developments limited partnership, according to Open Corporates.
The conversation over potential land grabs has divided the committee members, who up to this point have had relatively little disagreement on project recommendations and consistently moved projects forward or shot them down in near unison. However, it’s been noted this is the very topic that left residents rallying against the Kendall Gateway Study in droves several years ago.
John Kight, who has been involved with transportation in Boerne in one way or another for decades, acknowledged that residents are concerned about green-field projects, but seems to be in favor of local municipalities retaining the ability to utilize eminent domain if necessary. At a meeting earlier this month, Kight noted if there were going to be new transportation corridors, they would need to be routed through open areas rather than existing neighborhoods.
Kight has consistently advocated for new east-west connections to take some of the traffic off Boerne’s downtown Main Street and alleviate congestion at the intersection of Herff and River roads. Further, Kight pointed out that several of the projects receiving support from committee members adamantly opposed to eminent domain would require land acquisition, such as sidewalks on School Street or several of the roundabouts planned around the city.
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