Godaddyoh once bubbled...
Mike, as I said before, the judgement declares our right to launch over the easement. The easement existed some thirty years before the county leased that tract of land from the LCRA. The fact is that, when the county entered their lease with the LCRA, bad lawyering failed to show the prior existence of the easement. (That lawyer is now the county's top attorney, can you say the "Peter Principle"?) The easement was granted to a prior land owner with the intent that he would provide public access over the LCRA tract. We purchased the land containing the easement over twenty years ago and had originally run the park at Windy Point for many years before Travis County even had a parks department. Of course, they wish that it wasn't there.
Following the discovery of our prior existing easement was a desire and belief by Travis County politicians that we would fold under governmental pressure which led to the current unmanageable situation. The county filed seven lawsuits on us in hopes that we could never survive. We did. Then, your tax dollars built a road through our property and they repeatedly suggested to us that our problems could be resolved if we would just settle with them for a pittance of our property value. We beat them to the state supreme court on that.
What alternate location do we propose? The final judgement declares us to be the dominant estate and the LCRA to be the subservient estate. Among other details, it specifies that, when launching, we can only use those portions of the LCRA tract as may be reasonable and necessary. We interpret that to be any location that provides a good slope with solid terrain so we may launch without becoming stuck in the mud or creating an environmental concern because of wash of the underside of our launching vehicle. Also, we consider safety issues regarding the population of an area. That criteria determines our preferred locale as the elevation of Lake Travis fluctuates. Under the terms of the judgement, the county, at its sole discretion, may impose a location if ,and only if, they "construct" a boat ramp for our use. You are now impacted by their decision. First, using the aforementioned criteria, the cove would be better suited under most conditions until the lake drops away to far. Otherwise, the county could decide to share their existing ramp at the east end ,but, while sensible, that won't happen as it is not a location referenced in the Judgement.
Did our desire to utilize the easement start this? The rule is "Use it or lose it!" We have always utilized the easement. Just For Fun, a well known boat rental business was our 1st tenant launching here in 1987. We have had many over the years. Finally we are doing it ourselves. Our tenants have already taken numerous tickets for launching (over a dozen so far and more are pending) using the citeria described above, and every one was beat. We have personally been taken to jail for using the easement but again we beat them every time. Beginning to sound like abuse of power?
To give you an idea of just how ridiculous this is.... The County will not allow our rental customers to also be customers in their park. Why not? most of them already have their day pass there anyway, so why should it matter? But if they rent from us then they are not allowed to be guests there. ???????? They, the government employees, elevate it to a personal matter. Such decisions are handed down from their parks director, Charles Bergh.
If you desire, I would be more than willing to send you a copy of the judgement. Then you may see the details yourself.
A person to contact about all this is Suzanne Zarling at the LCRA. (512) 473 3200. She is our liaison with the county management.
Everything is a political issue more than you know Mike. You've got to appreciate living in America, where you can argue your rights against the government. I recently had Govenor Perry here on the property and also contacted five area state representives regarding concerns here. I certainly do not mean to cause problems with the users in Bob Wentz Park, but will not cowar to political abuse.
This is a lot of information, but you asked about the politics.
Richard
