131 house subdivision move planned next door--help!!!

Put something on your property that possible purchasers of the land in the subdivision will find offensive? A temporary pig farm? A bunch of used cars? A sign that says future home of a waste dump? All is fair in love and war right?

Marlene

__________________
It is the one with persistence and determination that brings great ideas into being.

I say if your property value has gone up 300% in the few years you've owned it, sell out and find an area better suited for homesteading... An area on the fringe of urban development probably isn't the best location if you want privacy forever.

If you do decide to stay, because you like your place, put up a formidable mail box. When the 330 house sub-division went in 1/2 mile away, all the mail boxes on our road became the favorite targets for the teenagers. We have to replace them about twice a year on average.

YOU GOT IT! Except that you will never have "privacy for years" anywhere except maybe the desert or the most remote areas with the least opportunities.

It has been an old saying for years: "You can't stop progress." It did not get to be an old saying for nothing. When we moved to our place 17 years ago, you could sit for hours without a car going by. Now they go by at 2 and 3 a.m., regularly! You can't stop progress.

But the value of my place has gone up manyfold in those years, as a result of all that development. So yes, I am eventually going to "farm" houses on it by subdividing it myself, reap the big profit, and move somewhere that progress has not reached yet.

Heck my MIL lives a half-mile in, on a hill, with 350 acres surrounding her. Yet someone bought the adjoining 50 acres, and now they have a biker rally there twice a year with loud music, pot smoking, drinking, burn-out contests and etc. for 3-day weekends. Her peace and quiet are shattered for those 3 days, twice a year, and she has 350 acres!

You can't stop progress.

Two miles up the road from her, a Hilton Head developer just bought a 1,200 acre farm established in the 30s by the Mars (Milky Way bar) family, once called Milky Way farm. It has deteriorated, but they are in process of putting in equestrian and golf facilities and will sell high-dollar lots.

Her farm land sale value has jumped 100% in a year. When she dies (she's 85), that land will NEVER see cattle again. It'll be homes.

You can't stop progress. But if you are flexible enough, you can live with it and profit from it.

__________________
Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

If you plan on staying, go to the meeting and express your concerns about the road being along your property. Maybe they could relocate the road on the other side of the developement. But 23 acres isn't really a lot to buffer you from that many houses and the noise they make. I live on a road that is only 2 miles long, but is a shortcut for all the other backroads into town. There are times the sound of cars (and trucks) drives me mad!

Since you aren't on the property yet, If it were me, I would wait a bit and sell. Then find me another nice bit of property. Could be a blessing in disguise if you can sell for considerably more than you have put into it and get more than you have now somewhere else.

Ranblin Wreck, the best mailbox ever is this: Get a large one, and a small one. Put plastic over the opening of the large one, and set it in the small one. Fill the space between the two with concrete. Set it on a 6x6 wooden post, sunk 3 feet in the ground in concrete.

The next kid who hits it with a bat you can find at the emergency room. I have installed many of these for neighbors. They also fare well when cars hit them.

__________________
Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

Since you have not moved in, you can express some hostility to the new subdivision, then offer to sell your property to the developers for a premium price. Done properly, they will pay you extra to get out of their way & expand their development. Take the money & buy a better property, butted against govt forest or more square or.....

If you wish to stay, plan carefully for what is coming. Long thin properies have a lot of fenceline, a bit of a negative for sure.

--->Paul

Get really good tight fences. Also maybe a good pair of Livestock Guard dogs - people WILL let their dogs run loose and your stock is called LUNCH.

I'd sell my place to the developer and move. It won't be long before someone builds another development on the other side of you. Then the "rules" begin and most of them can outlast you in court, especially if they band together. Check and see if the development will have a homeowners association. If yes - get out fast.

This sign is on a property that had a small development built across the street from it.



As part of a community service project our 4H group walked this road to collect the trash on the side. As we approached the sign I happened to be talking with one of the other fathers who is an attorney. He stopped to read the sign and stated that this disclaimer is good for two court appearances - the third time a complaint went to court he would probably lose.

I'm curious about the name of your place - is it supposed to be a take-off on abbatoir? If you've named your land as a slaughterhouse, then maybe you could play off that somehow to chase them away - or at least keep them at bay.

Pam <----------------- would not be happy with development either

__________________
My Dad always told me, "Honey, you can do anything you put your mind to." He was right.

With a developement of that size, the infrastructure required, the increase in traffic, noise and pollution, will affect the neighbours. And from experience we've learned that children from these estates seem to become feral when set free in the country: There's bound to be cases of trespass, vandalism and theft - wish it wasn't so, but it's a fact.

Our community is going through the same heartache: The local council recently released a draft plan to increase our population from 8,000, now zoned rural, to 23,000, in high density housing. They've got a fight on their hands!

You've got a hearing in August - If possible, ask for extra time for the local residents to examine the plans, as you feel that not everyone has had a chance to do so. Get everyone in the area to write an objection - if possible, get friends and relatives who visit the area to write. Send copies of your objections to your local council and your local newspaper. (We've actually gotten friends from overseas to write letters of objection.)

Our area is also liberally covered with signs: 'MEDOWIE RESIDENTS ARE ANGRY' and 'MEDOWIE - Say NO to high density housing', leaving no doubt about our feelings towards the local council...and potential residents.

Say and do nothing and you might find that that developement is only the thin edge of the wedge.

__________________
BIDADISNDAT: Aiming to Live a Good Life of Near Self Sufficiency on a Permaculture Based Organic Home Farm

Vicki,

I absolutely HATE what I am about to say but it may be your only hope. You might try offering the land to the developer for three times what it is worth and using that money to buy another piece of land (farther out), and relocating.

It's really hard to fight and beat these people. Better to use their own tactics against them. Just make sure that you get enough money to take care of yourself (including septic and well)!

donsgal

__________________
Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)

Someone better tell all the people moving here that they're in the wrong state. The influx has slowed a bit, but it hasn't reversed.

I'm surprised the developer has not approached you to purchase your property. Heck, I'd sell and relocate further out!

This is wonderful news. You have tripled your investment in a short 4 years. You should be doing backflips all the way to the bank. Immediately park a bunch of junk cars on the premises, get 5 or 6 nonstop barking dogs, install an outhouse, move a grubby trailer on the property, and make a point of engaging in target practice as often as possible. After you have successfully "white trashed" the place, approach the developers and tell them you'll sell for 4 times what you paid for the place. They'll move so quick writing that check, hand bones may break.

Take the money and relocate.

yup yup yup.... welcome to hell.

they are crawling up on me too.

I love Hoops idea! LOL

If you don't have animals out there, you probably should get them placed real fast before they zone the area residential. If you want to move further out away from the burbs, then think about following Hoops advice.

__________________
.
.

Hoop said it way better than me.

--->Paul

I feel for you but my situation is probably worse than yours. I bought my 25 acres about 8 years ago- mostly surrounded by paper company land. Now - all the property around me has been sold and rezoned- over 600 acres worth. On 2 sides of me 1100 tract homes are in the works. On another side is what they call neighborhood comercial ( just rezoned). That means condos and strip malls. It was all agricultural and forest land when I bought- and I thought it would stay that way. I went to every planning board and county commishioner meeting and fought the rezoning- it didnt do a nickels worth of good. I even had a petition signed by 12 other neighbors protesting the proposed rezoning to commercial. Didnt do a ---- bit of good. Anyone in power around here on the county level is in the pocket of the developers. My only hope is that the real estate slump will slow them down. And you will see deer-they have used massive brush hogs here around me to clear all but a few straggly pines from most of that 600 acres- now every deer on that square mile has been driven to my place as a refuge and food haven-and my garden.

You can either accept it or move on. Anything else will drive you crazy- I know - Ive been there, and when I lost the zoning fight over the last piece of land adjoining mine I had to come to terms with it.

Good luck.

The predictions are that with further hurricanes in Florida, many there will try to relocate North and away from the coasts, in other words, halfway back up North where many of the current Florida residents came from, hence the term, "Half-Backs". Also, many of the current residents of Florida and other areas of the South look to build second-homes in the Southern Mountains and nearby foothills and uplands.

A trend I am seeing much of is that people from the North seeking to move to the South are now stopping in large numbers before reaching Florida.

The advice of selling out to relocate to a more remote place sounds good, but where can you go? Remote lands around here (which aren't all that remote) now command a premium price because they are somewhat remote especially the private tracts adjoining the public lands (national and state forests and parks). The public lands were formerly often adjoined by large tracts of undeveloped private lands but these private tracts areas are being rapidly fragmented.

If I sell-out, due to the influx of people around here in WNC, I would be looking toward Alaska or possibly Ontario/Quebec.