The fastest-growing counties in Texas are also where TxDOT, electric utilities and water suppliers are taking the most land. Sadovsky & Ellis represents owners in Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall Counties who have received an offer letter for a highway, a transmission line, or a utility easement.
Growth along I-35 and I-10 is paid for, in part, with private land. Highway widening through New Braunfels and Schertz, interstate expansion through Boerne, new 138kV and 345kV transmission lines to serve subdivisions that did not exist five years ago, and water and wastewater lines to reach them — each begins with a right-of-way agent and an offer.
The offers in these counties are usually built on a corridor appraisal that values the strip and ignores what the taking does to the rest of a commercial frontage lot, a Hill Country homesite, or a family ranch that has been split by a route. Under Texas law the damage to the remainder is compensable. It is also what the first offer most often leaves out.
Sadovsky & Ellis represents property owners only, from an office twenty minutes down I-35. The review of your offer is free.
On a commercial property along I-35 or SH-46, the strip TxDOT takes may be a few feet. The value lost may be most of the property. Texas law does not compensate every change in traffic pattern — the state may reroute traffic and rebuild frontage roads — but it does compensate a taking that leaves a property with materially and substantially impaired access, and it compensates the remainder for the physical effects of the project on the land that remains: a building too close to the new right-of-way line, parking that no longer meets code, a septic field or well now inside the easement, a home that now sits within reach of the noise wall.
These are appraisal questions, and they are answered by a before-and-after valuation of the whole tract, not by the corridor number in the offer letter. On Hill Country tracts outside Boerne and Bulverde, the same is true of view, privacy and buildable area lost to a transmission line.
Before a utility can condemn for a new transmission line above 60kV, it must obtain a certificate of convenience and necessity from the Public Utility Commission, and the docket considers alternative routes. Affected owners can intervene, and routes do move — around a homestead, along an existing corridor instead of across a pasture, off a scenic ridge. Once the certificate issues, the route is largely settled, and the condemnation case is about the easement terms and the compensation.
Section 21.0114 of the Property Code requires a transmission easement to specify surface use, access, location and maximum width, damage rights, restoration to original contours, gates and fences, exclusivity and assignment. The utility’s form will address these in the utility’s favor; each is negotiable.
An initial written offer with the Landowner’s Bill of Rights and the instrument, a certified appraisal, and a final offer at least 30 days later that meets or exceeds it, with at least 14 days to respond.
If no agreement is reached, the condemnor files in the county where the land lies — Comal County in New Braunfels, Guadalupe County in Seguin, Kendall County in Boerne — and the court appoints three local landowners to hear value.
Either side may object to the commissioners’ award and try compensation to a jury drawn from the same county. Comal and Kendall County juries understand what land there is worth.
The condemnor may take possession by depositing the award. Compensation, interest and, where the law allows, fees and costs are decided afterward.
Deadlines are counted from delivery. Note the date.
A possession-and-use agreement lets TxDOT begin construction before compensation is set. It can be appropriate, but only with the right terms.
The survey, the plat, the septic and well permits, leases, and any appraisal or sale within the last few years.
We review the offer, the appraisal and the instrument at no charge and tell you whether the number and the terms are fair.
Yes, for a public road project TxDOT has eminent domain power. The question is compensation — the value of what is taken and the damage to what you keep, including access impairment where it is material and substantial — and the terms of any possession-and-use agreement.
No. Condemnation is filed in the county where the property lies, and the special commissioners and any jury come from that county. We handle cases in Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall Counties from our San Antonio office.
Sometimes, at the Public Utility Commission, where the route is chosen and landowners may intervene. Once the certificate issues, the realistic fight is over the easement terms and compensation.
An agreement that lets the condemnor take possession and begin work before compensation is finally determined, usually in exchange for payment of its offer now with the right to seek more later. It can be sensible, but the terms — what is paid, what rights are reserved, and how interest runs — need review.
What you paid is not the measure. The measure is current market value of the part taken plus damage to the remainder. In fast-growing counties, land bought years ago is often worth several times its purchase price, and remainder damage may exceed the value of the strip.
No. The review of the offer, the appraisal and the instrument is free, and we explain our fee arrangement in writing before you engage us.
Adequate compensation, the bona fide offer, special commissioners and trial.
Learn moreCommon-carrier status, the section 21.0114 easement terms, and remainder damage.
Learn moreTransactions, title and easement work for owners and investors.
Learn moreContracts, disputes and counsel for closely held companies.
Learn moreCall for a free review before the deadline in the letter. We represent owners only, in Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall Counties.