Brittany Kelley
KYLE — A nonprofit dedicated to providing support to underprivileged children may have to put its plans on the back burner, following the city of Kyle enacting eminent domain on its land.
This comes after city staff offered less than one third of the property’s value in September 2025, alleged Christopher Dacy, one of three directors of The Joe Dacy Charitable Trust, which owns the land in question off of Windy Hill Road.
“We started meeting with the city probably over three years ago,” recalled Dacy. “[In] every single meeting, we express[ed] our support for the project. We know Kyle’s a rapidly growing city and that Windy Hill Road’s become a major artery in the city and it needs to be enlarged and straightened for a number of reasons … So, after I don’t know how many meetings, but, finally, toward the end of September, they sent us the offers and [we] immediately recognized they were super low.”
The amount offered was $664,866, according to an email thread from the city. Dacy stated that he knew that this assessment was low, due to the fact that he had been discussing numbers with developers, who gave estimates for the value of the land.
So, he and the other directors hired their own appraiser to determine what they believe would be the best price point. The appraisal from Valbridge Property Advisors resulted in a total amount of $2,453,000 — more than a $1.3 million difference.
In researching the history of the property prior to the start of his ownership interest in 2022, Dacy discovered that the county had previously purchased part of the land: “Hays County purchased almost half an acre in the same Parcel 2, adjacent to the land Kyle wants, nearly 17 years ago. Hays County valued it at $13.28 per square foot and, now, Kyle has offered $3.75 per square foot.”
He felt that the county’s number was closer to what his appraisal assessed the property for than the city's.
The director shared that he and his team hoped that the city would negotiate, but that never came. The city received Dacy’s counteroffer in December, as the appraisal took two months, and rejected it.
“The day after we submitted our appraisals and counteroffer, the city’s attorney emailed our attorney, threatening the use of eminent domain and stating that the city needs ‘immediate possession’ of all parcels and that there isn’t enough time between now and the end of the year to reach a mutual agreement,” recalled Dacy, noting that the email didn’t explicitly state that they would be pursuing condemnation.
Two weeks later, city staff brought an agenda item to proceed with eminent domain at the Jan. 6, 2026, Kyle City Council meeting. Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale questioned the item, sharing that she reached out to the nonprofit, which thought that negotiations were underway. Because of this, she, and council member Courtney Goza, voted against the condemnation, as she believed that there should have been proper notice and more information provided to council.
The city filed for eminent domain in the Hays County Clerk’s office Jan. 9.
Then, Dacy revealed that they were asked to sign a Possession and Use Agreement for $15,000 that would allow Kyle to begin the road construction project prior to reaching a price, which he declined.
“We’ve been having meetings with them for three years about this. It’s a very small .6 mile stretch of road. There’s literally no urgency to start [as soon as possible] when they’ve just been discussing it for many years. It’s in our opinion [that] it’s not reasonable to send us an offer and allow us only a month or two to respond and then, immediately start eminent domain proceedings after the ball has been in the city’s court for three-plus years on a small road construction project,” emphasized Dacy. “They’re trying to strong arm us … Here we are in the final stages, after they finally presented us an offer, and all of a sudden, they’re trying to act with expediency that they’ve never acted with before.”
The litigation process, he continued, is only going to lengthen the timeline and costs residents money.
The condemnation process requires three court-appointed disinterested freeholders within the city, which will hear arguments from both sides before deciding on a value. If not, there is an appeals process prior to it starting again, he said, adding that the city could have avoided this by simply negotiating.
Furthermore, the nonprofit’s upcoming project will be delayed, shared Dacy. The Joe Dacy Charitable Trust began in 2022 after the passing of Douglas and Donald Dacy, who owned the property. Their only wish was to put all of their assets into a foundation — named after their father, Joe — to aid underprivileged children and one year ago, Dacy and his partners found the perfect opportunity through a summer camp.
“We came across a nonprofit [that puts] on an overnight summer camp for low income children that’s completely free to the campers and their families and this group has been looking to expand. They receive hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of applicants every year that they just don’t have capacity for and have to turn away,” noted Dacy. “It was a perfect scenario, where we’ve got this land that my great uncles want to be a blessing to children [and] this camp is looking for land to do just that. So, we’re partnering with them and have committed a lot of money to making that happen, [but] that’s in limbo, while this road construction/eminent domain proceeding goes on.”
The preliminary plan was to construct a camp property filled with cabins, a pool, rope courses, sand volleyball courts, basketball courts, a soccer field, a medical hub, dining room and more. However, the new litigation is forcing money that would have been spent on this project to go toward legal fees, resulting in pausing the project.
Hays County children that qualify for free or reduced lunch at school would be able to attend the summer camp for free, he said.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of families and children in Hays County that can’t afford to send their kids to an ordinary summer camp and would love to have their kids experience this camp,” said Dacy. “A lot of these campers come from broken homes and it’s just a learning and growing experience to get out of the home and meet new friends.”
Now, this opportunity has been taken away from residents for the time being.
In response to request for comment, the city did not state why it’s now imperative that it move forward with condemnation. It did, however, note the following on eminent domain proceedings:
“When the city and a property owner are unable to reach a negotiated agreement, a public convenience and necessity (PCN) authorizes the city to initiate eminent domain proceedings if necessary. A PCN does not mean negotiations end; in fact, the majority of property acquisitions are resolved through negotiated agreements prior to any hearing. The city’s goal is always to work in good faith with property owners to provide fair compensation, while being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars and delivering critical infrastructure improvements in a timely manner,” said Rachel Sonnier, city of Kyle assistant director of communications.
Dacy emphasized that he understands that the road is needed, but that all the nonprofit wants is the fair market value for the property: “Our intention is not to drag this out. We’re not trying to get more from the city than what the land’s worth. We just want to negotiate a fair price and move on.”
