• NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    I’m curious what would be the better approach if someone wanted to donate land to be used for a park? Give it to a charity? Or somehow find the cash and just build the park yourself and let people visit your land?

    • ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
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      12 hours ago

      My town had a guy that loved baseball a long time ago, he had money and wanted it local so he built a baseball field right on the river, made a big park and donated it to the city. He was pretty smart about it and worked the deed so that it would take a two-third vote of the citizens to sell it.

      Fast forward to a couple of years ago and the mayor petitioned the governor to change the deed under an NDA as he wanted to lease the park to a minor league baseball team. In the deal he also gave them the naming rights for the park, so the baseball team renamed the park after a local bank that gave them money.

    • MrNesser@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Depends how it was dontated, you can specify a loan of the land indefinetly to the city as long as its use is xyz.

      If its a straight donation with no caveats attached then the city can do what it wants

      My local council tried to build on some park land donated 100 years ago but the donator had specified its usage in the donation so they got shut down pretty hard.

      • Syrc@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Unfortunately it seems like the donator specified the usage in this case as well, but the courts are straight up ignoring it.

        On July 7, 1999, Bland’s descendants granted 87.97 acres of land to the “Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation, a Texas non-profit corporation, to be held in trust for future use as parkland by Williamson County, Texas,” according to a copy of the deed reviewed by 404 Media.

    • betanumerus@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      Keep the land. Build on it that park you have in mind. A donation means you give away any control.