Texas City Lands $90 Million Deal To Turn Private Land Into County Park

Travis County commissioners plan to add about 1,500 acres to the county’s wilderness parklands, protecting the pristine land from development and setting it up as a future destination for hikers and bicyclists.

The descendants of Austin tech titan George Kozmetsky and his wife, Ronya, who created Austin's RGK Foundation, are selling a big swath of undeveloped land west of Austin to Travis County at a steep discount.

RGK Ranch, a 1,507-acre former cattle ranch more than four times the size of Zilker Park, will then be turned into a Travis County Park, according to a May 14th announcement.

George and Ronya Kozmetsky, who died in 2003 and 2011, respectively, purchased the ranch in 1970 and later transitioned it to natural land using forestry management practices under stewardship of the Texas Forest Service at Texas A&M University. The property was used as a recreational retreat by the family through the years and was later inherited by the couple's daughter Nadya Scott, son Gregory Kozmetsky, and their respective children.

But members of the Scott family said they wanted the land to remain undeveloped to allow for wildlife conservation and the protection of the Trinity Aquifer that lies beneath it. So they're selling the land and development rights to Travis County for $90 million — about 30% below some of the offers they had seen.

A map shows the RGK Ranch property in relation to Milton Reimers Ranch Park and Hamilton Pool in western Travis County.

The Scott family said the long-term plan was intended to keep the land undeveloped, which is why they worked with the Nature Conservancy to get it turned into parkland.

The Scott family's decision to conserve the land by selling it to the county ensures that Kozmetsky's legacy of philanthropy will continue to live on.