What’s happening?
Around 310 acres of property at Guadalupe River Ranch were approved for purchase by county commissioners for around $11.25 million from Proposition A funds. Costs and total acreage will be specified following an inspection and survey period.
Proposition A Committee Chairman Rusty Busby told county commissioners that demolition of structures was required on the property before the purchase goes through. The county will hold $60,000 in escrow until the demolition requirements are met.
Alongside the demolition requirements, the county has a 60-day period to survey the property, and can back out of the purchase should any complications be identified. The loss of backing out would be $1,000. Legal counsel said the results of the survey should be available within 30 days from the date the inspection begins.
Some context
Upon approval in 2022, Proposition A gave Kendall County $20 million in interest-bearing bonds with a requirement to spend 80%, or $17 million, by June 2026.
As of December, the county had under $15 million to spend by the June deadline, and the $11.25 million property purchase will help meet the requirement.
Since the inception of Proposition A, the funds have been used for the purchase of conservation easements and limited parkland throughout the county.
What else?
Also on Dec. 23, commissioners approved conservation easement purchases for three properties in Boerne near the Esperanza community.
The three tracts total 155.36 acres with a combined cost of $155,360 plus $150,000 in total transaction costs.
“These three tracts are part of an ongoing conservation easement area that we have been working on,” Busby said.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian said the property is part of an initiative to conserve a larger area within Boerne, protecting a watershed.
“This is a key watershed, and it has been some doing to get that many people to want to do this and put that all together as one big property that is in a watershed, it is in town and it abuts a subdivision that looks to expand,” Wisian said.
