ALDINE, Texas (KPRC) – A Texas family is at risk of losing a home it’s had for over 100 years, so a high school can build a parking lot for its football stadium.
Travis Upchurch, 78, is a fourth-generation Aldine resident. He and his family are trying to avoid moving him from the home he’s lived in for the past 46 years.
The property itself has been in the family for generations, beginning in 1905.
“This is really all I know,” said his daughter, Tara Upchurch. “I lived here since the day I was born until I went off to college. It’s special. It’s a part of me. My dad still lives here. We have so many memories here.”
The Aldine Independent School District is looking to take over the land through eminent domain, the law that allows governments to force homeowners to sell their properties for new projects.
The district’s new W.W. Thorne Football Stadium is set to open next summer, and the Upchurch family says they were told by the property manager that the district wants their land for parking spaces.
“If they need it, I could see it, but they don’t ever fill up the stadium when they have football games,” Travis Upchurch said.
Tara Upchurch and her brother are leading the charge, hoping to change the minds of school board members as the plans are being laid out.
“We’re still hoping that there’s a fight there,” Tara Upchurch said.
“I’m really proud of both of them,” Travis Upchurch said.
The Upchurch family says they knew this day would come and that their acre of property would one day go to Aldine ISD, but Tara Upchurch never thought they would take it while her dad still lived there.
“I cried. I don’t know. I think my dad cried a little bit, too. It’s a shock. He’s comfortable here. He loves his house. To lose this, it’s hard. It’s a sentimental place for us,” she said.
The school district says it tries to buy homes from owners before using eminent domain. Officials say the Upchurch family refused such an offer last year.
The school board sent the family a new offer Tuesday.