...You can own and peacefully enjoy your property, as long as someone with more money doesn't want it.
What property rights?
...You can own and peacefully enjoy your property, as long as someone with more money doesn't want it.
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn property rights. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn property rights. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Bảy, 19 tháng 11, 2011
...You can own and peacefully enjoy your property, as long as someone with more money doesn't want it.
Thứ Hai, 14 tháng 11, 2011
More Connections
WHO would buy that much land? Michael Mallick. 110 drilling sites, thousands of acres, millions of dollars. Apple REIT Nine. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
We looked for some Mallick info, not surprisingly, the Fort Worth Weekly had some.
Project developer Michael Mallick is Anglo, with offices on the west side of town. Those opposing Hicks and Mallick on the project are a few black business leaders, led by controversial real estate developer Leonard Briscoe, Sr., who went to prison in the 90s for illegal kickbacks. He contends that black developers like him are being aced out of projects in favor of white, politically connected developers like Mallick.
She points to the two Mallick Group developments on the map. The Sierra Vista development will provide about 230 new single-family homes on the site of the old Riverside Village apartment complex, plus retail sites nearby. About a mile to the east. the Masonic Home property will be transformed into about 500 homes plus 63 acres of commercial development. There will also be 16 acres set aside for natural gas drilling. Hicks helped broker a deal earlier this year that created a tax increment financing district to include both Mallick Group properties. As tax income to the city increases because of the development, the extra dollars will pay for infrastructure improvements — perhaps one of the few instances when Fort Worth has used the TIF device in the kind of blighted area it was intended for. The East Berry TIF could produce as much as $10 million for things like streets and sewers in what will be known as Masonic Heights, bounded by Wichita and East Berry streets and Mitchell Boulevard. Homes likely will sell for $140,000 to $200,000.
Thứ Bảy, 17 tháng 9, 2011
Oakhurst being runover
Sounds like a bad joke, but it's true. Just another day in paradise.
WHO is in charge??
Read about it in the Fort Worth Weekly.
Residents in the Oakhurst neighborhood feel like they’re living a scene out of Cool Hand Luke — “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” They say a disconnect between city officials, the Texas Department of Transportation, and Chesapeake Energy is causing the planned expansion of I-35 to encroach on their historic area just northeast of downtown.
The city approved a drilling permit at the northwest corner of I-35 and Northside Drive several years ago, and Chesapeake built its pad site in the path of the proposed expansion of that traffic-clogged highway. So TxDOT recently altered its longtanding plans, moving the project to the east (neighborhood) side of the freeway, to avoid 10 wellheads on the west side of I-35.
The reason the state agency is favoring the drillers over the neighborhood? Existence of the wells means that the cost of expanding the freeway on the west side may have vastly increased.
TxDOT project manager John Tillinghast said he didn’t know why city officials allowed Chesapeake to build wellheads in the highway’s path.
“We never were informed by the City of Fort Worth that this property owner wanted to develop the property,” he said. “We’ve never encountered this before.”
Oakhurst resident David Collyer said it’s just another example of the gas industry’s influence at city hall.
“The city is going to let Chesapeake have first rights, even if they have to run the highway closer to the neighborhood,” he said. “Chesapeake has got the city council in their back pocket.”
“That never came up,” Espino said. “It was my understanding that the highway would be widened away from the neighborhood. No one from city staff or TxDOT brought this up.”
“This is the reality of having drilling in your city and how it affects your land-use plans,” Bradbury said.
Thứ Ba, 23 tháng 8, 2011
Just say no
If a reporter calls something "inspiring", YOU might want to pay attention.
There might be limited short-term benefits to a few, but the boom will be followed by a bust, and when it is all over “people won’t want to live here anymore.”
There was agreement that regulation wasn’t the answer, first because no regulation could prevent the disasters that come along inevitably with a project this large, and second because the state couldn’t be counted on either to pass or enforce regulations: “I can’t trust an industry that has got itself exempted from the air and clean water act.”
Thứ Tư, 17 tháng 8, 2011
Unacceptable
In 2003, the same Corp reported the levees were good, needing only $10 million dollars to fix those that weren't. WHAT happened in the past 8 years? Not much, except the cost of the Trinity River Vision skyrocketed.
Yet another ploy in the boondoggle to try and grab more federal money. Hey project "leaders", the feds don't have any money. Neither do the citizens that you want to pay for the rest.
As for THE PEOPLE, it's time to get YOUR head out of the sand, and their hand out of YOUR wallet.
Read the latest fluff piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Don't miss the comments from THE PEOPLE. They speak volumes.
The Army Corps of Engineers rated most of the levees along Fort Worth's Trinity River floodways unacceptable Tuesday but said the levee system is among the best-maintained in the country.
Water district board member Marty Leonard expressed confidence in the partnership between the district and the corps.
"I think we've worked so closely with them through the years and still are continuing to do that that we will not have a problem resolving any issues," Leonard said.
Leonard said she believes that many issues brought up in the inspection may be directly addressed by the Trinity River Vision, the flood-control and economic-development project that will run along the Trinity from the near north side to Gateway Park.
Thứ Hai, 15 tháng 8, 2011
Guess that answers that...
Terri Hall from TURF answers.
Rick Perry tied to Agenda 21, globalist policies. Read it all below, YOU can't afford not to.
Property rights shredded
The Trans Texas Corridor, and P3s in general, represent an imminent threat to private property rights. While lawmakers repealed the Trans Texas Corridor from state statute only months ago due to the public backlash, the re-named corridor (‘Innovative Connectivity Plan’) and its threat to property rights lives on through P3s. Two such projects underway by a Spanish developer, Cintra, will charge Texans 75 cents per mile in tolls (nearly $13 a day while Perry claims he hasn’t raised taxes or indebted Texans to foreign creditors) to access lanes on two public interstates -- I-635 and I-820. A third project being developed by the same company for two segments on SH 130 is, perhaps, the only leg of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 project that will ever be built.
Dan Shelley worked for Cintra, who had its sites set on developing the Trans Texas Corridor. Shelley lands a job as Perry’s aide, steers the $7 billion corridor P3 to his former employer Cintra, then goes back to work for Cintra. That’s how Perry does business -- pay to play.
Thứ Sáu, 5 tháng 8, 2011
Calling Grand Prairie....
In January, we told you the gas drillers were coming.
Today, you get a heads up from a South Grand Prairie Watchdog.
Beware.
People in Grand Prairie need to look into RULE 37 that lets the gas company take your mineral rights without any compensation. BEWARE if you receive a letter from the Railroad Commission. If you do not file protest within the short period of time the RRC will give the gas company the ok to suck the minerals out from under your property. South Grand Prairie is currently under siege by the gas company and these letters are showing up. You MUST fight for your rights.
In addition to filing the protest, you'll have to drive to Austin to contest it.
And they are coming for you too, Lewisville. Consider yourself warned.
Check out the Rule 37 cases in Flower Mound. And learn a thing or two about WHO is connected, here.
Thứ Tư, 27 tháng 7, 2011
Thứ Ba, 26 tháng 7, 2011
PAYING Attention
Read the letters in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Gas leases
"Protecting property owners' mineral rights," my foot. (See: Wednesday commentary)
The Railroad Commission's Rule 37 is confiscatory and antithetical to the principles under which this nation was founded. The separate Mineral Interest Pooling Act, if twisted in the way Glenn Johnson and Chesapeake Energy are trying to distort it, will be even worse.
What about the mineral rights of the victims of these predators? A Rule 37 exception just takes their minerals with no compensation whatever.
And in the present economy, is failure to sign a lease going to prevent production of someone's minerals? No!
Why? Because the sales price of gas is too low to recover drilling costs now, and nobody wants to sell their gas in a glutted market anyway. All the investor publications say so.
Chesapeake is filing cases with the Railroad Commission not to facilitate production but to consolidate all the land in a unit cheaply and hold it for speculation.
They are not completing wells and gathering pipelines now. They are posturing on the drilling pads and drilling a few hundred feet and calling that a good-faith effort to produce in order to hold their existing leases.
When the market once again supports profitable drilling and production, perhaps those unleased mineral owners will see a reason to lease.
-- Jerry J. Lobdill, Fort Worth
Anyone who believes Chesapeake Energy is just a benevolent organization that wants everyone to participate in the production of this wonderful Barnett Shale is what I call a fool.
Chesapeake is neither a benevolent nor a philanthropic organization bent on giving money away without any strings attached.
The fact is that the precedent for "force pooling" unleased mineral interests is already outlined in what is commonly referred to as the "Finley Resources" decision from the Railroad Commission (Oil and Gas Docket No. 09-0252373).
Within that decision the Railroad Commission has ruled that if Chesapeake wants to force pool unleased mineral owners it may do so in this way: (1) the owners of unleased tracts within the unit are pooled as owners of a one-fifth royalty and four-fifths working interest, proportionately reduced; (2) the mineral owner's share of expenses, subject to a zero risk penalty, are payable only from the four-fifths of production rather than from their entire mineral interest.
This latest attempt by Chesapeake is to simply reverse the Finley decision with one that is -- again -- in its interest only.
Fools do seem to abound these days.
-- Louis McBee, Fort Worth
Thứ Sáu, 22 tháng 7, 2011
Saltwater Disposal Hell
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on the city council meeting about extending the moratorium for Saltwater disposal wells in Fort Worth for gas drilling.
Since 2002, urban gas drilling has seeped into almost every corner of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding counties to the north, south and west. But we still don't have a good way to deal with the 3.5 million gallons or so of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing at each of those wells or the "produced water" that comes up out of the hole afterward.
The standard way is to inject it back into another hole dug into a formation even deeper than the mile-deep, gas-rich Barnett Shale. But some people call that pollution -- gas well wastewater has a salt content about three times that of seawater. Some scientists have even blamed deep injection wells for minor earthquakes in North Texas.
Our favorite part of the report? A comment from a citizen living near a drill site.
I married a Texan, moved here a few years ago. I have a BS degree in zoology and a certificate in Environmental Engineering Technology. I come from Alberta, known for natural gas drilling as well as oil patch drilling. What I have seen here is a joke, an environmental disaster.
They put a well in right at the edge of our property, 5 1/2 acres south of Fort Worth. I have been watching the construction, drilling and operation. Of course we get money from the company, very little actually. It is not even worth the smell, noise and damage they have done to our land. After everyone from Mansfield ISD to Tarrant County take their cuts, we get pocket change. Now we have bottom feeding lawyers and ambulance chasers sending us collection notices on taxes from every Tom, Dick and Harry out there that wants a cut.
I watched the construction and they took about every big shortcut they could. There is NO Environmental oversight what so ever. During the injection, they built a large Tailing Pond at the edge of our property. They did not use a liner, not bentonite nor plastic, in it's construction. The water was dumped in there to soak into the soil and evaporate. Afterwards it has been filled in, to hide the evidence I would guess. We have lost over 25 old growth oak trees in the space of 1 1/2 years. They have poisoned our ground water.
The fracing does occur too deep to affect the trees, that part is true. But when you do not line a tailing pond you will taint the ground water available to the plant life.
It would cost thousands to prove it, so why worry for the companies.
They are not paying the $$ to the little guys when they disrupt your life, destroy your peace and quiet and kill your trees. Where is the money going? I would look in government. Crooked bunch do nothing reprobates. Oh wait here comes another tax notice.
Thứ Năm, 21 tháng 7, 2011
Hey, Media!
If you live in Texas, read the letter from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. YOU can't afford not to.
Brutal tactics
Mike Norman's Thursday column speaks mildly of the gangster-like tactics of the oil and gas operators in Fort Worth and other communities in the Barnett Shale. (See: "Don't understand oil and gas? What's wrong?")
The industry many times ceased negotiations after the July 2008 crash of the gas boon. Industry representatives, now with partial but not fully developable lease tracts, are back in neighborhoods offering not only paltry bonuses, but leases with reduced royalty shares, unfair charge-backs against royalties, pre-waiver of all activities they deem necessary to operate, and pre-agreement to support variances to city and other governmental rules or laws, including setbacks and pipeline easements. Want that on your property?
The landmen have been bold and say if you do not sign this one-sided, inequitably paid lease then they will file a Rule 37 against your property and will take your gas minerals anyway. Envision a gun held to a property owner's head.
These are brutal tactics supported by the Texas Railroad Commission. The fact that a Chesapeake spokesperson used the word "generosity" is nothing but a perverse statement. Chesapeake and the others need to be exposed by the media for what they really are.
-- Gary Hogan, Fort Worth
Thứ Ba, 19 tháng 7, 2011
Mary's Creek
From the article it doesn't sound like much has changed, no matter how much the residents protest. YOU should pay attention. YOU could be next.
And speaking of water and sewage...check out Durango's question for the day.
The Fort Worth Water Department will host an open house on July 21 to discuss plans to purchase a site for the future Mary’s Creek Water Reclamation Facility. The open house will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. at Western Hills Baptist Church at 8500 Chapin Road.
The event will feature no special presentation, but citizens with questions about the project can ask water department officials about the plans.
Work on the Mary’s Creek Water Reclamation Facility began in 2009 with a Site Selection Study that included a Community Advisory Committee. The committee recommended criteria for selecting the site.
Thứ Sáu, 15 tháng 7, 2011
Crooked is...as crooked does
Read about the latest gas drilling move in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. We're just glad this one wasn't written by Smith.
Arguing before the three-member Texas Railroad Commission on behalf of Chesapeake Energy on Monday, Johnson said, "The commission has had problems because people in the Tarrant County area don't understand oil and gas and unfairly criticize the commission."
So, whatever is wrong is our fault? Maybe some of us just look at natural gas drilling differently.
Chesapeake wants to "force pool" properties for drilling in the Glen Garden neighborhood of southeast Fort Worth, south of Cobb Park and west of the Glen Garden Golf and Country Club. It would require property owners to take part in urban natural gas drilling, whether they like it or not.
Regardless of what happens in this case, he told the commission, the well will be drilled. And, "our well will drain all the gas."
To do that, the company wants to pursue a second route to forced pooling, the Mineral Interest Pooling Act, or MIPA. Chesapeake would force unleased property owners to take, and pay for, ownership shares (what's called a working interest) in the well.
