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SpaceX requests 43 acres of nearby Boca Chica State Park, offering to expand another park by 477 acres

In order to “expand its operational footprint” at Boca Chica, SpaceX is asking to buy 43 acres of nearby Boca Chica State Park, and will offer as part of the purchase 477 acres adjacent to the Laguna Atascoca National Wildlife Refuge several miles to the north.

The link above includes maps showing the relative location of the properties. According to the meeting agenda for the Texas Parks and Wildlife department (TPWD), scheduled to take up this exchange next week, the commission already favors the deal.

“This acquisition will provide increased public recreational opportunities including hiking, camping, water recreation, and wildlife viewing, and allow for greater conservation of sensitive habitats for wintering and migratory birds,” the TPWD agenda stated. The agenda concludes by stating that the Commission finds that the proposed exchange is in the best interest of TPWD.

The public has been invited to comment on the deal at the meeting. Do not be surprised if we have a riot at that meeting of leftist activists protesting this deal.

Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • pzatchok

    The state was selling wildlife land on the coast around there a few years ago. Cheap. Real cheap.

    The problem was that it could never be developed on and you could not stop anyone from using it. No hunting.
    Oh You could drive a house boat into it but you could not make it permanent.

    I bet Musk bought up a bunch just for this contingency.

    I always wonder why environmental groups do not buy up land like this to “save” it from developers?

  • Jhon B

    In any sane world, this would be a fantastic deal for Texas. Too bad, we don’t live in a sane world anymore. A small few whack jobs, will screw it up for the masses.

  • TL

    pzatchok – “I always wonder why environmental groups do not buy up land like this to “save” it from developers?”

    Land swaps of that type are pretty common in the forest products industry. Very large owners of forest lands always have a land sales team devoted to selling or swapping land tracts deemed environmentally or culturally sensitive. The difficulty being that environmental groups often want the lands donated instead of paying fair market value. Land swaps where the state gets involved in exchanging a similar valued but less sensitive property are a way all sides can win. Especially since they are usually tax neutral in a way a sale wouldn’t be.

  • Robert Pratt

    pzatchok: “I always wonder why environmental groups do not buy up land like this to “save” it from developers?”

    They do, regularly. There are many different conservation groups, etc. that buy up land to protect it and the groups are not all leftwing environmentalists. Several hunting groups buy land for this purpose.

  • David Eastman

    I was reading an article approximately a year ago where there was a lawsuit and lots of lobbying happening involving such a land purchase organized by the Sierra Club and several foundations. Turns out they had mostly arranged a deal for a major landowner to swap a bunch of their land with some other state owned properties and donate the exchanged, previously state-owned properties to a conservation trust. And, of course, take all sorts of charitable donation and other tax credits in the process. And then it was determined that a lot of the land being “donated” had highly contaminated long decommissioned mines, and a lot of the land being swapped for that land was actually quite valuable, and the deal fell apart. The lawsuits were after that point, the Sierra club and such were proclaiming that this was a done deal, for the good of mankind, and needed to go through regardless, ignore the fact that their wealthy backers were going to be exchanging huge liabilities for very valuable land, only some of which they were actually obligated to donate to the conservationists…

  • pzatchok

    Robert Pratt

    I know of a lot of conservation groups that do good things with their money and lands.

    That is why I called the other groups environmentalists.

    In fact i am a member of a local conservation club. Over 200 acres they own and manage plus over 300 more acres leased from farmers for hunting.

    One of the first conservation groups in the US was to save waterfowl for hunting.

  • I always wonder why environmental groups do not buy up land like this to “save” it from developers?

    Since it’s “the right thing to do”, they think that EVERYONE should be compelled to use their money to do it,

    Just as “sanctuary cities” expect the rest of the nation to accept illegals – and get so upset when the rest of us take them at their word instead, and send the illegals to their “sanctuaries”.

    Privatize the virtue signals … socialize the burden..

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