Kendall County Commissioners Monday approved spending more than $400,000 to remove hundreds of acres of county land from future development of any kind.
Commissioners heard from Proposition A Committee Chairman Rusty Busby, who detailed the four designated purchases by the committee.
In November of 2022 Kendall County voters approved Prop A, setting aside up to $20 million to be used for acquiring open space and conserving land.
A classic example of the land sought by Prop A for conservation — to forever remain free of development, whether commercial or housing — was one of the purchase requests before the commissioners Monday, a call to spend $75,000 on preservation of an attractive 150-acre conservation easement.
“ It has Guadalupe River frontage, it has I-10 frontage, it has FM 1621 frontage; it’s a prime piece of property,” Busby said. The landowner, he said, wants to donate the entire easement to the Nature Conservancy, with Kendall County only paying “due diligent costs” amounting to $75,000.
Commissioners voted unanimously to fund all four of the purchases Busby presented, including: $65,000 for 97 acres at 424 Kreutzberg Road, the entire easement being donated with the Cibolo Conservancy holding the easement; and a direct purchase of a 0.546-acre tract of land on River Bend Road, next to Kiehl Park, for $5,000.
Busby said one Kendall County resident, Bill Keenon, used all of his retirement funds years ago to buy 132 acres to prevent a housing development from being built on land north of FM 474, north of Spring Creek Road.
In turn, Keenon turned to the committee to help protect the land and 237 acres of his ranch with the conservation easement.
“Because he spent all his money to preserve that piece of property the committee felt like, the board felt like it was alright to give him $200,000 to purchase his conservation easement,” said Busby, in addition to $65,000 for the easement on his ranch.
County Judge Shane Stolarczyk asked if the Prop A committee agreed to use the $200,000 to cover Keenon’s previous venture.
“Unanimous,” Busby said.
Busby said the committee has much more work to do.
“ We put on two conservation easement workshops and they bought in a lot of activity,” Busby told commissioners. “Three of the four we are presenting today we got from those workshops.”
At least three more workshops are being planned this fall.
“We have a little less than two years to spend $17 million, so we want to get busy.”
The commissioners appointed 12 county residents to the Prop A Committee, tasked with identifying land acquisitions for purchase or sought for conservation easements through Prop A funding.
There’s land being bought and sold every day in Kendall County, Boerne and the rest of the Hill Country. Many of these transactions may not be what landowners and country residents desire, but as land development continues, Prop A has emerged as one solution to slowing down commercial expansion within Kendall County.
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