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In the nearby Blanco County, four landowners will receive over $3 million in damages following a court clash with Kinder Morgan.
The condemnation proceedings, which followed failed price negotiations between Kinder Morgan and the landowners, are among the first in the Hill Country, according to a press release from the Texas Real Estate Advocacy and Defense Coalition.
After Kinder Morgan filed a petition with the court, a panel of three real-estate professionals in Blanco County considered the case and ultimately decided to raise the amount Kinder Morgan intended to compensate landowners for its Permian Project Pipeline.
The pipeline will transport natural gas approximately 430 miles from Waha, Texas to the Katy area and is set to begin construction this fall.
“Last week, another Blanco County property owner and member of the Texas Real Estate Advocacy and Defense (TREAD) Coalition, Matthew Walsh, was awarded $233,500 in damages,” stated a press release on behalf of TREAD Coalition. “After this initial hearing, details began to emerge about three other properties – Campbell Ranch, Neill Ranch, and Gloore Ranch – where the discrepancy between Kinder Morgan’s appraisal and the value determined by the commission was even greater, with the most extreme case being a difference of 81 times Kinder Morgan’s appraisal.”
“Kinder Morgan only wants to compensate landowners for the part of the land impacted by the easement and refuses to accept responsibility for the 20-40 percent devaluation caused by the pipeline,” said Patrick Reznik, attorney for Mr. Walsh, “Their appraisal formula is inherently flawed.”
According to a statement by Kinder Morgan, “These commissioner awards are the next step in a legal process that will ultimately result in these specific landowners being fairly compensated for easements that will be used for the Permian Highway Pipeline, pursuant to a long-established condemnation process in Texas that Kinder Morgan supports and was recently upheld in the Texas state court system.
“Additionally, over 60 percent of the right-of-way has been acquired for the project without lengthy condemnation proceedings. It is also worth noting that a judicial appellate process exists in order to deal with excessive valuations such as this one. PHP will be availing itself of that appellate process here and in other appropriate situations.”
