‘David against an army of Goliaths’: The fight over a proposed Google data center near Sand Springs

Yeah, let's start here.

Before anyone was talking about Google or a data center, what exactly did the family – tell us a little bit about the family there who signed that conservation easement.

But what did they agree to when they signed it with Lane Legacy, and what did Lane Legacy receive in return?

Yeah, so the – What the land legacy does is conservation easements and that puts restrictions on land forever and ever.

And people can do it variety of ways.

They can donate them to us.

They can sell them to us if we have a buyer for those, but it protects land forever.

It's a green space that forever and ever land legacy will put those restrictions and fight them in court.

So in 2013, The Ringel family decided on their family ranch, they would put these restrictions.

And it's a unique easement.

And they put a circle around the entire property.

All the stuff near the highway was the easement, plus a big spot in the middle.

So 270 acres of their 835 acres were restricted.

And they all signed an agreement, everybody in the family that signed it and notarized it, that they would follow these restrictions.

And the restrictions are fairly simple.

No industrial park, no access, no roads.

No buildings.

We do that all the time.

We have 18 of these in Osage County, Oklahoma alone, and we have 130 of these around the state, around 30,000 acres.

A family would do this for the tax benefits.

So in 2013, the Ringel family made a non-cash donation to Land Legacy, $3.822 million that they were able to use as a tax write-off, as a deduction off their income.

So that was 13 years ago.

Now, suddenly, they just feel like they can break the rules.

So without our knowledge, they went to the city of Sand Springs, got it annexed.

I heard about it when they started to get it rezoned, and it's restricted.