October 2011
Lake Travis
Economic Impact Report

Travis County park purchase to add access to
Pedernales River

By Farzad Mashhood
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 8:53 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011
Published: 8:48 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011

Consider it the missing link connecting two popular Hill Country parks.

Earlier this month, Travis County commissioners closed on a 770-acre ranch owned by Eugene and Jean Reimers in southwestern Travis County near the Hays County line that will connect Milton Reimers Ranch Park and Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve.

The $19.2 million purchase completes a park system that boasts a sliver of sandy Pedernales riverfront, limestone cliffs and more than 3,000 acres of wooded hills, peppered with trails and caves.

As part of the agreement, the current owners, who declined to comment, will retain a 40-acre estate and will lease about 650 acres of the property for grazing for about $5,000 a year .

The purchase is the third and final piece of the Reimers family property and comes more than 25 years after the county began to purchase Hill Country land from the family, beginning with the controversial $7 million purchase of Hamilton Pool in 1985.

The county bought nearby Milton Reimers Ranch Park — popular among rock climbers, mountain bikers and hikers — in 2005.

"This last parcel is kind of the piece in the middle — the last piece of the puzzle that pulls all of these different parcels together — and is really critical to acquire now," said Travis County Commissioner Karen Huber, whose precinct includes the new property.

The property was used for ranching by the Reimerses and their ancestors for about 120 years. The ranchland recently purchased by the county still has remnants of movie sets, including those from 2003's "Alamo," much of which caught fire in a September blaze.

Down on the riverfront, a sandy beach uncovered by a drought that has shrunk the Pedernales River will be open to park-goers. But it's the long-term benefit to the Hill Country's water quality — not the natural beauty of an undeveloped parcel of the Hill Country — that the proponents of the land's acquisition tout as the most important.

If the ranch were to be developed, runoff from construction and typical residential use could deposit harmful bacteria and chemicals into neighboring Hamilton Pool, said Jeff Francell, director of land conservation for the Nature Conservancy in Texas.

"If we hadn't been able to lock in this property for the future, it's very possible that we would have ended up with a development right above this very beautiful, cherished spot," Huber said.

The Reimers family could have easily sold the ranch to developers and for a heftier price than they charged the county.

However, the family wanted to keep the land preserved, said Laura Huffman, executive director of the conservancy, which helped negotiate the sale.

Huber said it's unlikely the deal could have been made with the efforts of county staffers alone.

"Public sector entities like the county \u2026 often don't move quickly enough and don't have enough internal resources to put together a deal that's right for the people," Huber said.

The public will have to wait about a year to access about 80 acres of the new parkland while the county prepares a trail connecting Hamilton Pool to the newly acquired mile and a half of Pedernales riverfront.

The rest of property would open up after the Reimerses die and after the county restores the property to its natural state, said Charles Bergh, Travis County's parks director.

When that's ready, park-goers would get to the river from either Milton Reimers Ranch Park or Hamilton Pool park with a $10 day use fee, he said. fmashhood@statesman.com; 445-3972

Link to the original report, which includes a video, on Statesman.com

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