Opinion ID: 1513201
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: selection of a site

Text: The Regents decided upon the tract of approximately 600 acres which was within Ector County and within 12 miles of Odessa College. The land, however, was subject to oil and gas leases; and there were substantial gas recovery operations on the land. The 600 acre tract had two main parts, a 308 acre tract and a 280 acre tract. The general plan of the Regents was to have the surface oil and gas pipelines and other facilities moved off the 308 acres tract and onto the 280 acres. The 308 acres would then be the Campus Core, and the 280 adjoining acres a sort of buffer zone. The Regents rather insisted that all pipelines and other equipment be moved off of the 308 acres. This was not accomplished. A group of people in Houston, the Tom McKnights, the Taub heirs, Houston Endowment, Inc., and others were prepared to donate the surface of the 308 acre tract and to sell to Ector County the surface of the 280 acre tract. The Regents, by resolution, determined to accept the approximately 600 acres if they came without cost and if all pipelines, et cetera, were moved off the 308 acres. In October, the surface of the two tracts was conveyed, subject to the various mineral and some supporting surface leases, from the Houston group to Ector County. Ector County was authorized to convey the 308 acres on to the Regents. On October 29, 1969, the county did convey the 308 acres to the Regents for The University. The County acquired the 280 acre tract by purchase from the Houston group as a park. The Commissioners Court gave notice to issue its general obligation time warrants to pay for the surface of the 280 acre tract and for roads and streets to serve the area. The time warrants were issued. They were not secured by any lien on any particular property. Specifically, they were not supported by any lien or claim on the 280 acres. On December 12, 1969, the county conveyed (donated) the 280 acres to the Regents for The University. The deeds to both tracts were accepted by the Regents and filed for record on that same day. The resolution of the Regents accepted the conveyance of both tracts, but provided that no action to activate and operate The University should take place unless, among other things not here in controversy, the pipelines and other facilities were moved from the 308 acre tract. Thus the Regents did acquire the land, a site of more than 200 acres, on December 12, 1969. The statute said the Regents must acquire it by December 31, 1969. The argument is that because of the presence of the oil and gas activity, the rights of the dominant mineral estate, and the danger of explosion or other accident, the site was not really a suitable one. A plausible argument is made for that position. But whether the site was a good one or a bad one is not or us to say. That matter was entrusted to the Board of Regents, and it did pick and accept the land for a site. The site picked is within the requirements set out by the Legislature. For this reason, we agree with the Court of Civil Appeals that this attack by the plaintiffs was correctly overruled.