She’s gonna get a share of the lease revenue on that, right?
…right?
No takey-backs! ✝️
AI is starting to show that it isn’t worth the investment and they are STILL building more?!? WTF is going on?
That is crazy and would make no sense for them to do. Why do you think they’re doing that?
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Hmmm Providence RI by any chance? LOL
OP claims to be from southwestern europe here: On a post about his cat
Lol I wasn’t expecting op to actually reply don’t need them doxxing themselves was just poking fun at how that crap happens more often than you’d think with the corruption , shits a plague everywhere
People should know that donating land like this is not at all guaranteed to keep the land from being developed. Promises to keep parks in existence is nothing when the city “needs” a new development, hospital, data center, whatever.
a while back when i was a animal physio class a university, the profess told how he knew someone about to retire/Will but he wanted to donate it to STANFORD on the sole purpose of it being used as a research station in some island/country. the guy somehow heard the stanford lawyers said they were going to sell it or rent it out instead right behind his back. he gave it to Berkley university instead to be used for science.
the moral of the story make sure you have something in place so that the land/property being donated is used properly by a lawyer or a trust org.
Whistleblowers with morals are also more important that people realise.
was there a clause that if it isnt used as intended, it return to the owner?
And this is why you need a lawyer when you’re doing this kind of thing.
If this farmer was smart, there would be a clause in the contract that the land may only be used for a park or other public space. And that if the city decides to resell the land, the farmer or their descendants will have the right to reclaim it.
Thus, farmer could either stop the data center or at least get a solid payday.
IANAL. The general approach to this isn’t to sell it, from what I’ve seen. It’s to lease it for purpose.
We have a number of scouting camps near me that have permissive leases. Technically, the family that “donated” the land has a conditional lease with BSA, with terms like “BSA may use the land so long as one Boy Scout sleeps on the property at least one night per year.” With stipulations that if this requirement is not met, the land returns full and unconditional ownership to the nearest living descendant.
In the mean time, BSA is responsible for all taxes, costs, upkeep and improvements.
Basically, until BSA dissolves, they will be free to use the land. Failure to meet the condition would immediately revert ownership and void the lease.
Not a lawyer either, but the article explicitly says “sold”, so I assume it’s not just leasing
In 2003, the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation granted the land to another non-profit called the Williamson County Park Foundation. A month later, that non-profit gave the land to the City of Taylor. Five years later, in 2008, the city of Taylor sold the land to the Taylor Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) for $15,000. In 2025, TEDC sold the land to Blueprint, the data center developers, for $10 million.
I can just see it- ‘Okay kids it’s that time of the year again, whoever wants to get their computer merit badge and their camping merit badge, bring your tent at meet at 6:00 p.m. in the parking lot of the data center on our old campground…’ 🤣
(I’m sure that’s not the only restriction heh)
But yeah I agree that’s the way to go, basically guarantees the donation recipient stays in line and the instant they don’t the donation evaporates.
Stories like this always remind me of the Peter’s parking deck at GA Tech. The couple that donated the land wanted it to be a park, so that the students would have a green place to play and relax. Once Tech had the land, they put a parking deck there instead. But they put a basketball court on the top level so that they technically met the letter of the law.
In fairness, as a student I needed that parking deck way more than I needed the park.
omg, never knew about this donation. Sad, but also in the spirit of an engineer doing absolute minimum to pass compliance while achieving what you need. Whats the good word!
The said part there is truly that the you needed a parking lot more than greenspace.
I can’t imagine a better way to ensure people don’t donate land ever again.
Pave paradise and put up a
parking lotdata center🎶 shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop 🎶
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404 Media is journalist-founded and supported by reader subscriptions. They are four high quality investigators doing amazing work (they work with a couple of other people on some stories).
If you can’t afford it, I understand. I share archive links all the time. For anyone with a few extra bucks who cares about quality reporting by people with integrity, this is easily one of the best options around. I’ve been extremely happy knowing they exist. (Gets you extra content from their podcast, too.)
I generally hate the principle of subscriptions + ads + paywalling stuff to viewers but not to crawlers, it’s pretty much double-dipping while baiting people for SEO.
On the other hand, I understand that in this day and age keeping a news outlet afloat without “outside influence” requires doing stuff like this. It’s a hard thing to balance but in either case I appreciate the insight from your comment, I admit I didn’t look them up and I figured they were just another money-hungry megacorp-owned outlet.
And I have no problem with that. I sort of found out who they were by accident cause they had a trend of good stories getting posted here and at some point I auditioned their podcast where they mention that.
She trusted the government I don’t understand what Went wrong
Shoulda got that in writing I guess.
