alt Hacker NewsGonna play a little devil's advocate here.
Setting aside whether I think data centers or good or bad and just focusing on the sale of the land (for whatever purpose).
The land was donated back in 99 and looks like they never followed through on making it anything. Which is pretty shitty to Mr Bland's vision.
Though that donation itself is a bit weird because literally on the just the other side of the neighborhood is. a park!
https://maps.app.goo.gl/jwcANZ59bW17sTmm7
according to the town site the park was dedicated in 1955 https://www.taylortx.gov/244/Fannie-Robinson-Park
I suspect It just sat fallow for 25 years because there was already a park nearby and nobody bothered to press them on using the land for it's donated purpose. It switched hands a few times. Likely someone turned it up in some meeting and realized at this point they were never going to do anything with it and might as well sell it.
Edit: In considering the protracted timeline, I revise the assumption to "nobody at the office knew why they had the land or any stipulations attached to it". it's even possible that the buyers in 08 didn't know the terms of the original deed from nearly a decade before. Not that it makes it right to sell it but the intent wasn't likely malicious, the land wasn't donated just last year or anything.
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> Though that donation itself is a bit weird because literally on the just the other side of the neighborhood is. a park!
To be fair, parks don't just mean playground equipment. It could be a forested area with trails. It could be a drainage pond you can fish in. It could be a garden or prairie. It could even just be a big grass lot where people can play games and do whatever.
Calling that a park is stretching it, even if someone named it "park". That's a playground, some grass, and a parking space. Not something where you can enjoy a stroll for a couple hours.
A city of ~20k doesn't have to go crazy here, but surely you can maintain something nicer (especially once you have that data center money!)