I was disgusted when I saw the report that a 88 acre tract "donated" to the government to be a "park" was recently sold to become a data center. Then I found out it involved real estate deeds that I have some experience reading, so I looked up the primary document, and present the most relevant screen shot below. I now believe that the full truth is more complex and that alternate explanations are possible (see theepochtimes link for a lengthy story of what I thought was true, but now doubt is the full truth.)

My reading of the actual deed, as recorded by the Williamson County Clerk, is that I do not see what I would call a "deed restriction" that requires that 88 acres to forever be a park. Omitted fact #1 in all reports so far is that the "TEN AND NO/100 DOLLARS" under "Consideration" for the Bland family is NOT NECESSARILY all they got. This is typical in real estate in Texas where the sales price can usually be inferred if the buy takes a loan, which is itself also recorded as a lien, but in a cash sale, there is no such information.

Item #2, in my opinion, having read a lot of deeds in Texas, if I wanted to restrict a grant of a parcel to forever be a park, I would expect to find those words in the deed! Either the Bland family had a bad lawyer that failed to advise them of their wishes for it forever be a park, or they had no such wishes and simply sold the property. We can't tell from reading the deed.

Are there any real estate lawyers on the board that care to comment? Even though I personally do NOT want the county selling a parcel it "acquired" in 1999 (for an unknown sum) to become a data center, I also do not see language in that deed that prevents them from doing exactly that.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/a-texas-family-donated-land-for-a-park-it-then-sold-for-10-million-to-build-a-data-center-6062443