Land acquisitions are required as a foundation for Capital Improvement Projects for new public infrastructure (streets, water/sewer/stormwater) and as needed for public health and safety requirements. Real Property staff negotiates the acquisitions on behalf of the City's project manager engineers in multiple departments. State law (Tx Property Code and Tx Local Govt Code) dictates appraisal requirements and minimum offer periods. The City Attorney's Office has also provided guidelines for their eminent domain processing times (handout available). Projects may have multiple parcels which may be received at any point within a project schedule. Any changes or modifications to any of the parcels may cause the schedule to re-set in order to comply with state regulations. Tracking processing times for the critical milestones of the acquisition allows the project managers to accurately schedule project delivery and estimate land acquisition costs. 

Acquisition processing times start from the date an acceptable exhibit (metes and bounds survey) of the desired parcel is received in the Real Property Office and the project is assigned to a Land Agent and end when the conveyance instrument is filed in county records. After the assigned Land Agent has reviewed the project submittal and discussed special conditions with the Project Manager, the Land Agent orders a title commitment, drafts an environmental report memo and,  as required by  the Texas Property Code Section 21.0111 (a), engages an outside independent appraiser to determine the fair market value of the property. 

After final acceptance of the appraisal, the Land Agent submits an initial offer letter to the property owner for review and acceptance. If an agreement cannot be reached during the initial or final offer periods, the City may move forward with acquiring the property through the eminent domain process.  

Based on processing activity during the previous years, the target for this fiscal year is to complete the three requirements (order title commitment, draft environmental report and engage appraiser) within seven days of project/parcel assignment for 100% of the parcels.

Access Database for Real Property Section located at FS100/Property Management/Real Property/Databases/New Real Property Management Database
Individual Project Tracking Reports,  and Consolidated Report located at FS100/Property Management/Real Property/STATISTICS/Project Processing Tracker

Total Number of Days =  Date title, environmental report and appraiser engagement are all completed - Date of Project Assignment.

% of parcels with completed requirements within 7 days of project assignment =
                            Total Number of parcels with completed requirements within seven  days of project assignment/
                                                      Total Number of parcels with completed requirements