If you own, or think you own, undeveloped property in far east El Paso; heads up – El Paso County may be coming after it.
There’s a ton of land in far east El Paso that hasn’t been developed or even properly claimed. Some doesn’t even have a clear owner. El Paso County feels like much of this land is “impeding development” and they want to start seizing it.
Open desert areas in far east El Paso have a lot of potential but, at the moment, are pretty much just used for target shooting, off – roading and illegal dumping.
Who Owns The Land In Far East El Paso?
In some cases, nobody and, in other cases, nobody knows. In th e50’s, 60’s and 70’s; land in far east El Paso was dirt, (no pun intended), cheap. Developers sold it like crazy on the promise that El Paso’s expansion would make it someday beautiful and/or super desirable.
Why Did People Abandon Their East Side Land?
They were right but the development came slowly and with no proper infrastructure to make the area livable, folks gave up. A few homes and businesses went up, including a nice church, but with few residents, even those closed up and fell into disrepair. See pics here.
Much of the land never had a thing done on or to it. After decades of owners dying and splitting land up between heirs, divorces forcing ownership changes, lost records and other issues; most owners can’t be found.
My Dad and some of his friends bought land way out there. Years later, a few gave up their shares and a couple passed away ultimately leaving my Dad with full ownership. Trouble was, the original deeds and surveys were lost and maps were poorly drawn. The land was lost, nobody could find it. Fortunately, the land was way cheap so each partner was only out a few hundred dollars.
The land was near or in what is now Horizon though and today, would have sold for a FORTUNE. Meaning, I could have been writing this from my private villa in Cancun. SMDH.
Now What Happens To The Land?
El Paso County is preparing to put a 2021 tax law, (H.B. 1564), into effect allowing local politicos to declare property abandoned if no owner can be found. Ownership would then transfer to a “trustee” who would bring it back to market.
“We think the solution is to vacate many of these lots, erase the subdivision lines that were put in in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, return them to effectively raw land, and then come up with a plan that would ideally require the land to be developed in a way that has more modern amenities to it,” Morales said. – elpasoin.com
The moral of this story is, talk to your parents, grandparents, great grandparents … everybody … and see if you have any, possible ties to land out there. You may be sitting on a hidden goldmine.
I absolutely wouldn’t trust the county to tell you about it either, they’re already seeing their own dollar signs.
Lost El Paso – Abandoned Mt. Franklin Country Club
Check Out The Ruins Of The Lost Mt. Franklin Country Club
Gallery Credit: Dubba G
Movies That Were Abandoned During Production and Never Finished
These movies were started but never completed or released for a variety of reasons.