A look at local government, and one of its basic features: infrastructure maintenance. Since this can often involve the use of privately owned land, conflicts can develop regarding access to that land. Cities can claim eminent domain to gain access to privately owned land if doing so benefits the general public. Depending on need, the price of the of access can be driven up considerably.
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- right of way easements.
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In the last five years, Houston has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to improve its aging street infrastructure, and in the process, created some of the most expensive real estate in the city.
Since 2018, Houston has spent more than $15 million on easements, buying directly from residents or through lawsuits, for more than 50 street, water line and drainage projects.
The cost of doing business as a city varies significantly when it comes to purchasing easements. Some were all but free at less than $1 per square foot; others were higher than $1,000 per square foot, data show.
The most expensive one was 153 square feet of land on West Bellfort in southwest Houston, obtained last year through a lawsuit for a street widening and drainage project. The price tag: $1,450 per square foot, totaling $222,000.
In another case in 2018, Houston spent $129,000 for about 112 square feet of grass next to a residence on Hicks Street, south of the Heights, for a paving and drainage project. That worked out to $1,154 per square foot.
Many such easements were in the range of several hundred dollars per square foot, including a 253-square-foot parcel next to a gas station on South Braeswood in southwest Houston. The owner received $111,500, or about $441 per square foot.
. . . The power for the government to take private property for public use — even without the owner’s consent — is a right that has been recognized for centuries, according to Rusty Adams, a research attorney at Texas A&M University's Texas Real Estate Research Center.
The government is required to justly compensate a resident for the land, and the property owner is entitled to due process under the law. There is, however, room for disagreements on what constitutes a fair payment, Adams said.
When a government fails to reach an agreement with a property owner over an easement purchase, it can take the owner to court through the condemnation process, where the price will be decided by a judge.
A little more than a third of the easements the city acquired in the last five years were obtained through condemnation, data show. Those, on average, cost twice the price of easements purchased directly from residents.
“The big stick that the government has is that if they want to take it, they can, as long as the court approves it,” Adams said. “And one of the arrows in the landowner’s quiver is the delay and expense of litigation for the government.”
