09/01/2026
THE STATE OF TEXAS TRIED TO PULL A FAST ONE.
It not only backfired. It backfired badly. Epically.
For 50 years, Texas Parks & Wildlife leased thousands of acres at Fairfield Lake from Vistra Energy. At a dollar a year, it was the ultimate sweetheart deal, but it was also cancellable on short notice. Said so in every lease agreement since 1971. In 2018, when Vistra shuttered the coal plant that was cooled by the lake, that deal was dead in the water.
Three years later, Hortenstine Ranch Company brought Fairfield Lake to market for $110 million. Texas Parks & Wildlife couldn't afford to buy it. But the willing seller found a willing buyer: Shawn Todd, a Dallas developer, whose Todd Interests offered $103 million. Once that news got out, it didn’t take long for the slings and arrows to start flying.
Todd Interests had Chinese backers. (Not.) Todd Interests planned to drain the lake. (Not.) Todd Interests was going to desecrate a historic cemetery. (Not.) Bills were drafted in the Texas House and the Texas Senate to seize the property via eminent domain. Neither made it out of committee.
Senator Nathan Johnson, who routinely votes with the Sierra Club, drew the line: "I want the otters and the nutria to have a place to go, but government imposing upon private-property rights is the wrong way to go about preserving the environment."
On June 1, 2023, Todd Interests closed on Fairfield Lake. Nine days later, Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission filed a petition for condemnation to acquire the entire property, i.e., not just the former state park but twice the size of the former state park. The members of the commission also drafted a new internal policy restricting their own use of eminent domain.
Five months later, the two sides met in court in Fairfield, Texas. Todd Interests relied on Eddie Vassallo to present its case. The acclaimed property-rights attorney had determined a $450 million valuation. The state’s outside legal counsel, Charles McFarland, countered at a paltry $85 million. Not only was this $18 million less than what Todd Interests had paid just months before, but it barely eclipsed the $72 million that Texas Parks & Wildlife claimed to have invested in the park.
The three special commissioners responded with the largest condemnation award in Texas history: $418.3 million. Fairfield Lake was worth the sum of its parts, which included a 4,350-foot dam, considerable senior water rights, and the future value of Todd Interests’ members-only Freestone Club.
Shawn Todd’s response? "We do not want the state of Texas's money. We want to move forward with our development."
Texas Parks & Wildlife’s response? It ended all plans to acquire Fairfield Lake.
The moral of the story? Don't mess with Texans’ private-property rights.
