Land Exchange – Presidio County

[SHANEA]

Conservation Committee
Land Exchange – Presidio County
Big Bend Ranch State Park
November 2007

I. Executive Summary: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff have negotiated an exchange of lands with a private landowner within Big Bend Ranch State Park that will result in a net gain of acreage for the park and fewer inholdings.

II. Discussion: The land ownership history of the property now called Big Bend Ranch is complex and varied. As a result, the original ranch acquired in 1988 included irregular boundaries and a number of inholdings. Staff have been working ever since to add significant adjacent resources to the park, clear up ownership conflicts, deal with irregular boundaries and eliminate inholdings.

One of the owners of a number of inholding tracts, ranging in size up to one section (640 acres) has agreed to exchange roughly 2667 acres for roughly 1850 acres of TPWD land, resulting in a consolidated holding for the landowner and eliminating seven individual inholding tracts from within the boundary of the park. These inholdings include tracts that straddle roads or trails and complicate user circulation within the park, while the consolidated inholding of the landowner is situated in such a way as to minimize any interference with implementation of the Public Use Plan. According to the current agreement with the landowner, all tracts involved will be appraised and exchanged at appraised value, with any difference due to the landowner to be paid at appraised value.

Staff seeks Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission permission to begin the process of soliciting public input and conducting a local public meeting. Upon final negotiation of terms of the exchange and the signing of a contract by both parties, staff will return to the TPW Commission for authority to close the transaction.

SEE EXHIBIT A

[SHANEA]

Good afternoon:  Would it be possible to obtain a higher quality image/pdf of the Exhibit A of the proposed Big Bend Ranch State Park land swap?   http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/business/feedback/meetings/2008/1108/agenda/conservation_committee/#item7a

Thank you

Regards,

Shane Allen

Dear Mr. Allen,
Attached is the original map of the proposed Big Bend Ranch State Park land exchange, exactly as it was produced and exported from our GIS lab. It could likely be exported from the original project file at a higher resolution (larger file size), if that is what you need. Just let me know.
Thank you for your interest.

Ted Hollingsworth
Land Conservation Director
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
(512) 389-4520 ph.

Thank you very much for the prompt reply!

In reviewing the map, it appears to me that the blue areas shaded as McCormick will be "exchanged" to TPWD for the area that is within the black line area proposed consolidation.

Please see attached.

Thank you.

Regards,

Shane Allen

Yes that is correct. Note that McCormick already owns land inside the “black line” consolidation area. Also note that the McCormick tract with frontage on the Rio Grande is not included.

Ted Hollingsworth
Land Conservation Director
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
(512) 389-4520 ph.

 

[01ACRViper]

excellent news 

that looks to be near madrid falls. at the public input meeting, when i asked about fresno creek access, they made it sound as if the landowners had no intention of backing down. maybe they offered a good enough trade. the park service controlled land on either end of a new proposed trail, but it crossed too many inholdings to be used. i hope they got enough land to finish the trails in that seciton of the park

thanks for posting these. though i don't always reply, i'm always grateful for the news

[SHANEA]

I too think it's a good idea as it gets rid of land inholdings and helps consolidate the land and doing it in the proper way.  But, I'm reserving final judgment until after I can do an overlay between the land inholdings and the swap.  If anyone has time, please request the GIS file from the state and do an overlay comparison and see what it looks like...

[rgibson]

Regarding, Fresno Creek inholdings:

The children of the last owner do not agree on much of anything.  Also, the Fresno is a very small amount of the total value of the estate, so not alot of priority to get anything done.

In the meantime their Grandmother died and now they have more estate to handle.

Their Mom told me about ten months b4 she died that she was going to call Andy and donate the Fresno to the BBRSP.  That never did happen.

(Andy Sansom, then head of TX P&WL, also her personal friend)