County: Carlsbad Loop Was Built on Private Land

The portion of the East Carlsbad Loop between U.S. 87 and the river has unknowingly been laid on private land for over 30 years after its construction. The county is hard at work to establish the loop as a public road since this oversight was discovered several years ago. The commissioner’s court addressed the situation Tuesday morning. 

The issue began several years ago when Lloyd and Judy Martin surveyed land that they had purchased. Through this survey, the couple discovered that a portion of the East Carlsbad Loop was on their property without the county’s knowledge. The Martins then took the issue to the commissioners' court in order to resolve the situation.

The court realized that the solution to the problem would be to simply trade the land that the road fell on for a similar parcel of county land. The issue was not as easy to solve as the court predicted, however.

“Initially, it was, ‘oh, let’s just swap these two properties, move the fence line over, and we’re good,” commissioner Rick Bacon said. “Such as it was, it ended up involving much more than that."

The roots of the problem began 30-40 years ago when the loop was first built. According to Bacon, an agreement was struck between whoever owned the land at the time and a previous county commissioner to allow the road to pass through the private land.

However, when the Martins brought the issue to the court, the commissioners could not find any documents stating that ownership of the land had been given to the county.

Bacon said that whenever a road is planned on public land, the landowner usually donates about a 40- or 50-foot section to the county so that the county can take responsibility for the road. With no documented proof that such a donation had occurred, this assumedly was not the case in this situation.

“This is a can of worms that I got stirred up [in] about 7 or 8 years ago,” county judge Steve Floyd said. “The more we investigated it, the more complicated it became.”

After a good amount of legal counsel and deliberation, the county and the Martins eventually came to an agreement. According to the agreement that was signed by Floyd Tuesday morning, the land where the loop is built will be donated to the county. In return, the Martins will be presented with an abandoned park on the river with almost exactly the same acreage.

Bacon said that this park is often used by those who wish to shoot firearms or do drugs and remain out of sight. However, he said that the Martins will probably fence the land off to prevent such activities.

Bacon pointed out that the county has been maintaining the East Carlsbad Loop for years, so it’s basically been a county road in all but legal description. He was relieved that the situation was finally resolved and that both parties are satisfied with the terms.

“It’s just dressing up some more legalistic things more than anything and making [the Martins] feel comfortable about not having a roadway on considered private property,” Bacon said.