Landowners urge Texas Senate panel to OK eminent domain bill
“Landowners told their eminent domain horror stories Monday as they urged a panel of lawmakers to approve a bill that would give them stronger protections, and possibly more money, when companies assert eminent domain to force landowners to sell.
Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican and author of the bill, said the measure is a byproduct of the booming Texas economy and energy sector, which has left many property owners at the mercy of private companies that have the authority to condemn land. Kolkhorst told Senate State Affairs committee members Monday that the bill would bring more transparency to the process.
“What I am saying to you all is that we have a process that seemingly isn’t fair to the people that don’t want to sell their land,” Kolkhorst said, adding that she’s heard from a number of landowners being pushed off of their land by pipelines crisscrossing through the state. “There’s just got to be some fairness to how we do this.”
Kolkhorst and state Rep. DeWayne Burns, R-Cleburne, filed companion bills in January that would penalize companies for intentionally low balling landowners during negotiations prompted by eminent domain, which is the power to force the sale of land for projects deemed in the public interest.
The bills — Senate Bill 421 and House Bill 991 — also would mandate that easement contracts for land contain certain minimum information, such as descriptions of the number and size of pipelines or transmission lines to be built. In addition, companies using eminent domain would be required to hold public meetings within the counties in which they are asserting eminent domain, so that property owners have opportunities to ask questions.”
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Cobler, Nicole. Statesman 4 MArch 2019.