‘Sell or you get pushed out.’ Texas property owners face 14-day eminent domain deadline

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — An old coffee can scrapes the side of a metal bucket as Angela Wetuski's boys scoop up food to feed the catfish in her family's tank. The pea-sized pellets scatter, rippling the water with dots the fish gulp on sight.

The pond's stark-white limestone cliff and glimmering green pool are some of her favorite things about the property in Granger, a small community in eastern Williamson County. But Wetuski worries a tentative road project will force her out in the near future.

"I think that what we're looking at right now is what do we do about this," Wetuski said.

Williamson County laid out the general ideas for Arterial K in its Long-Range Transportation Plan. According to the county, the project would connect I-35 to a future segment of the East Williamson County Highway.

Construction on the first two segments of the East Williamson County Highway have already been underway. A groundbreaking ceremony for Segment 2 of the highway took place this fall, and Segment 1 opened to traffic in October 2023.

Wetuski's parents still own the land her home sits on. The couple bought the property more than 30 years ago and still live there, but have since downsized their residence.

At the edge of Wetuski's front yard sits the new, smaller abode where her parents live. If it's quiet enough, the wind can carry the sound of her mother watering plants or murmurs from their TV set over to the rocking chair on the porch where Wetuski sits.

This past spring, Wetuski said her parents received a letter from a third-party contractor hired by Williamson County, informing them of meetings to discuss Arterial K, at the time called Corridor K.

“My parents went in just thinking, 'Oh, we'll check it out.' And then mom looked at the map and said, 'that's our barn where you want to put the road,'" Wetuski said.

The road as it's currently proposed would cut through several plots of land, including 3.5 acres of the Wetuski's property.

Wetuski said she's lived on the land most of her life and has dreams that her own children will take it over one day.

With Arterial K a possibility, Wetuski said that image of the future is in jeopardy.

“I just said, 'No way. It's not going to happen. I'm going to do what I can to try and learn all I can and find out what — what rights we have,'" Wetuski said.

Population climbs, neighbors' worries grow

Connie Odom, director of communications for Williamson County, says Arterial K is in an early phase called a Right-of-Way Preservation Study.

During this phase, engineers fine-tune the project by visiting with landowners and learning more about the landscape and structures they don't want to disturb during construction.

Odom says the big driver of the project is the county's growing population and a desire for roads to keep up with it. She stressed it could be years before the need for Arterial K arises and the project is officially green-lit.

“Generally, we are not building a roadway until growth in that area dictates that the road needs to be built," Odom said.

The county's population has nearly doubled in the last 15 years. Census data shows the county's population in 2010 was around 420,000. Today it's nearly 700,000, according to the county.

The population is expected to hit 1.3 million in the next 20 years.

Wetuski said if the population continues growing the way it is, it's likely the project will move forward. She said she's worried about going up against the county to keep her property.

“At some point, eminent domain comes into play. You either have to sell or you get pushed out," Wetuski said.

'That's what we arrived at at the time'

House Bill 2730 went into effect in 2022, laying out new protections for landowners when it comes to eminent domain.

According to the law, entities that seek private land for public use must now provide owners with items like the Landowner's Bill of Rights and a written appraisal of their land when making an initial offer.

At least 30 days after making that initial offer, an entity must send its final offer to a property owner. After that, property owners have 14 days to respond.

"I would love to see more — more time, frankly," State Rep. DeWayne Burns, R-Cleburne, said.

Burns helped write HB 2730 and now chairs the House Land and Resource Committee which oversees legislation regulating eminent domain.

Burns says it took three legislative sessions to come out with terms for the law that appeased oil and gas companies, local governments and landowners groups — including the 14-day time frame for landowners.

"Given the whole parameter of everything, once (landowners) have been initially contacted — they've received the Landowner's Bill of Rights — they know about the project. They know what's coming. They've had time to prepare," Burns said.

Burns stressed that if the law is not realistic in its implementation, representatives need to be contacted.

“If there are folks that have legitimate concerns with parts of that bill not working for them, then they need to let us know," Burns said.

Eminent domain use growing in Williamson County

Eminent domain lawyer Dan Gattis practices in Williamson County and served in the Texas legislature for 8 years.

He said lawmakers have the difficult task of managing the needs of private citizens as well as public and private corporations when drafting reforms for eminent domain.

Because it can take a long time to write laws that appease all sides, Gattis said it is unlikely that a solution to concerns raised by people like Wetuski will be addressed by the legislature anytime soon.

However, Gattis said in lieu of state-mandated transparency efforts, public and private entities can and should be more forthcoming with citizens about what they're planning. He suggests that might look like hosting public forums with impacted residents or mailing out information on projects much earlier.

“When you're talking about roadways and those types of things, and even in pipelines and power lines, we could be more transparent about that process," Gattis said.

14 days to respond: the timeline of an eminent domain case

After an entity sends an initial offer for someone's property, it must send a final offer no more than 30 days later, according to the Texas Property Code on Eminent Domain.

If a landowner and entity are unable to reach an agreement on the terms of the offer, the entity can then file for condemnation just 14 days after the final offer was submitted.

Condemnation is a legal term defined by the Texas State Law Library as "the appropriation of private property by the government against the will of the owner." 

Thirty days after a condemnation petition is filed, a judge must set a hearing with a special commission made of three people who reside in the county and are "disinterested parties."

Historically, members of those special commissions are landowners, real estate professionals and property developers in the county where the petition was filed.

At the hearing, the special commission assesses damages to the property owner, whether they're being offered fair compensation for their land and if the entity is acting within its powers of eminent domain.

Either side has the right to appeal the decision of the special commission. That appeal then proceeds like a typical civil case with a trial, evidence, witnesses and potentially a jury. The outcome of this trial decides if the entity or landowner owns the property being condemned.

Gattis and Odom say it's rare that an eminent domain case reaches a courtroom, but that number is growing in Williamson County.

As of 2023, there were 2,600 eminent domain cases on the county's docket. That number is now almost 2,900 in 2024.

Gattis said it's usually the monetary value an entity offers that most often brings those cases to court.

He points to the ever-evolving land values of Williamson County, spurred partly by the arrival of Samsung's Semiconductor Manufacturing Plant in Taylor, as a factor that's further complicating local Eminent Domain cases and makes it more difficult for landowners to be paid fairly.

“The prices are not what they were 50 years ago. They're not what they were six months ago. We need to be allowed to put in more evidence of what real values are," Gattis said.

Gattis said long-term project planners can fail to consider how much a land's value can change in just a few years. For example, in 2019, Wetuski's land was worth $1.6 million. That value is closer to $3.2 million this tax year, according to records from the Williamson County Appraisal District.

Wetuski said even if her family does eventually decide to sell, options are limited because the land is already marked by Arterial K.

“I don't see any way that you could sell without disclosing it and then that changes your buyer completely," Wetuski said.

Sounding the alarm

In the months since first hearing about Arterial K, Wetuski and others affected by the project formed the group Preserve Wilco Now, sending out letters about the road project and encouraging people to speak up against it.

“We held a town hall meeting the first week of April, and had over 150 almost 170 (people) probably. It was standing room only," Wetuski said.

Wetuski says as of now, all she and organizers can do is keep an eye on the project and any developments.

Most recently, Williamson County commissioners had the project on the agenda to discuss during executive session in two different commissioners court meetings in October.

Because plans for Arterial K aren't yet final, Wetuski says she's still weighing her options, but it's not knowing when the project could happen that's heaviest on her mind.

“If it's 10 or 15 years away, and we could still do something with that, I would make an effort to just pretend like it's not coming and carry on," Wetuski said.