TEMPLE, Texas — As Temple's Revitalization Project continues, a property owner is speaking out about how they are being directly impacted.
Temple spokesperson Nohely Mackowiak told 6 News the City of Temple reached an agreement with Bell County for the construction of an annex building, which will be located between Martin Luther King Junior Drive and South 10th Street.
"The city worked with Kasberg Patrick & Associates (KPA) to connect a site selection process," Mackowiak explained. "That location was chosen because of its close proximity to Downtown and its accessibility off of a collectors street."
While the location may be great for generating more revenue and traffic downtown, the owner of the property, Renetta Degrate, says she was served eminent domain papers by Bell County in June.
Degrate says she was offered just under $20,000 to sell her property to Bell County and has less than 20 days to either accept the offer or prepare to take the county to court.
"I'm not so much furious about the eminent domain papers being served, I'm more so opposed to abusing it," Degrate said. "This is impacting the affordable housing that I was actually trying to put on there."
The county will have the opportunity to sell the property to developers. This acre of land is in a low-income neighborhood. While no one lives on the property, it has the chance to be be sold to developers for over 10 times more than what the county is offering Degrate.
"I'm not completely opposed to revitalizing that part of town but if it's done when we the property owners get first dibs at it," Degrate continued. "Pushing everybody out and giving it to a developers? I'm not OK with that."
Martin Luther King Junior Drive and South 10th Street is a part of Temple's African American Churches Historic District.
Degrate says she submitted her certificate of appropriateness, permits, and even attended numerous city council meetings to learn what she could do to keep ownership of her land. But her requests have gone unheard.
"Because me, as well as the other five property owners want to develop on this land, we think it would be the best option for the city and county to make this an in field area," Degrate said. "From there, property owners could receive incentives in cases like this."
Degrate reached out to the office of the Texas Attorney General to figure out what right's she has in this situation.