Help! They're putting a road through my quiet neighborhood! (1 Viewer)

[Dave Poehlman]

A large insurance company is building a huge training facility about a half mile from my house. Which is fine. However, we live on a quiet dead-end street that really feels like you're out in the country even though you are a stone's throw from the city. There is a large tract of undeveloped wooded land behind our house.

Anyway, this large insurance company wants to build a road that intersects our dead-end street. Which is okay because it gives the neighborhood kids someplace else to ride their bikes besides up and down our one street.

However, their plan is to make this a four lane road that they'll use for delivery trucks and such! Our quiet neighborhood is going to become a truck route! I then have horrible visions of the land behind my house being developed into some sort of commercial landscape rather than the deer, hawks, coyotes and owls I see now.

Everyone on our street is against the idea and we're meeting with their representative in a week to discuss it. But, I don't know if we have much say in what ultimately happens. There goes my property value!

Has anyone here ever had any success fighting something like this?

 

[Malcolm R]

As was discussed exhaustively in another thread, if the landowners are meeting all necessary zoning, planning, and regulatory criteria, they should be allowed to do with their land as they want.

If you want to live in a nice, quiet area, make sure you own a lot of land around your home so you can control it. Otherwise, you have to expect things to change. Very few people own large tracts of land just to let it sit idle. Most want to develop it, or subdivide it and sell it to others who want to develop it.

There are probably ways to fight it, make appeals and such, but it's very expensive. You described a lot of wildlife in the area. Is it a park or a preserve? Are there any endangered species present? Is it a deer wintering area? Those could possibly be used as roadblocks to development, depending on your state regs.

Sorry if I'm not expressing a lot of sympathy, but I work for an engineering firm whose projects come up against N.I.M.B.Y. (Not In My Back Yard) opposition on a regular basis. "Because we were here first," is not a viable reason to squelch the rights of adjacent landowners. There can be legitimate reasons, within the laws or regs, but they should be legitmate and not just obstructionist.

 

[Eric Kahn]

You could check with whoever maintains your road and see if it was made to handle truck traffic
the county or whoever might stop the plan if the road was not made to handle truck traffic

 

[Ron-P]

Go to the city, get the plans and see what is being proposed...then move. Or, you could build a giant mash potato mountain at the end of your street.


Peace Out~

 

[Justin Lane]

Well put Malcolm.

As long as the development meets all the applicable laws in an area I see no reason why construction should not proceed. In my town there was a similar situation where people in an older development raised a stink because there was a new devlopment being put up that met the back of their property. One complaint was the new houses would be viewable from their backyard (funny thing is the spacing between houses on the sides is only about 20-30 feet currently). When they saw that argument was not going to work, they tried to claim it would cause drainage problems. Of course they had no professional evaluation to the effect.

People nowofdays seem to want control of their property as well as all of the property in the surrounding area. Development is inevitable. It sucks but there is not much you can do about it if the only damage done is increased traffice and more noise. If you want peace and quiet for the rest of your life, buy more land to use as a buffer or move to Montana.

J

 

[Leila Dougan]

Or, you could build a giant mash potato mountain at the end of your street.

ROFL! Dave, if you put as much effort into this as you did mashed potatoes, you'd be ALL set!

 

[Glenn Overholt]

This probably won't work, but I'd have to try it.

If you paid extra to buy a house with peace & quiet, then get your broker to revalue the propertly after their work is done. If he agrees that the resale value would go down, get your neighbors together and sue for the money you are losing.
Well, it makes sense to me

Glenn

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Very few people own large tracts of land just to let it sit idle. Most want to develop it, or subdivide it and sell it to others who want to develop it.

I've always understood that the land would someday be developed. I just never expected it to become commercial property.

I've lived in the area all my life and it's been undeveloped land as long as I can remember... however, once I move in.. it gets developed! Just goes to show you that the universe does indeed revolve around my actions.

I do believe it will affect the resale value of our home.. which is a point I plan to bring up at the meeting. If there is some compensation offered for that, I may just take the money and run... to a new subdivision... and build a new home theater...

The thing is, they don't really need this road.. their facility is at the corner of two major thoroughfares already. So, I don't know why it has to be 4 lanes if at all. If we can hold them to 2, I'd be for it.

They are planning to build a jogging track and hiking trail at this place also.. so I may need to invest in a telescope.

The mashed potatoes may be a good idea.. because you know they would be cold and icky.. since potatoes are immune to the heat of the sun.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Even if current zoning prohibits such a development, you still may not be able to stop this. A developer of large manufactured homes communities has used the strategy in the Metro Detroit area of suing smaller townships and municipalities over their current restrictive zoning laws. Many of the townships back down only because they do not have the funds to handle the legal fees of the lawsuit. If this is a large insurance corporation, they probably can afford a legal battle much more easily than your local governing body.

 

[Karl_Luph]

I know how it is Dave. I've worked in land surveying for 35 years and have seen this happen all the time. I have seen where a couple of big subdivisions got together to boycott the building of a Wal-Mart and after months of flak , Wal-Mart decided against building there. One of the biggest complaints was that it was going to be built across a four lane street from a elementary school. This takes thousands of people to sway a corporation this size to build elsewhere. By the way, Wal-Mart probably already has 6 other establishments within 8 miles of this area.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

If this is a large insurance corporation, they probably can afford a legal battle much more easily than your local governing body.

Well it's Northwestern Mutual Life... they can afford it. Actually, they are a real nice company. I used to joke that it was okay they were moving into the neighborhood.. because they're the "quiet" company. The fact that they are taking the time to meet with us shows that they at least know how to exhibit concern for their future neighbors.

Perhaps if they let me use their cafeteria for their famous free lunches they give to their employees.. we may have a deal. (and yes, they do serve mashed potatoes)

If this goes through, one house has to be bulldozed. I'm sure NML will reimburse the homeowner handsomely for the loss of his house... lucky bastard.

 

[Dheiner]

But, are their potatoes warm?

 

[Cam S]

I have the same problem as you Dave. We have a HUGE feild behind on house on the mountain, and our neighbour wants to take is 30 Acres out of the ALR to let the city put a road extension behind our house and then develop it all. This would really put a dent in our property value, as we have a wonderful view of the city, but it soon could be a view of a sub division :frowning: I highly doubt the land will be taken out of the ALR though, since it's a pretty tough thing to do, unless you wanna build a park or something like that.

 

[Mark Brewer]

Easy solution.

1 glass of water
1 spotted owl

go to the land, pour the water on the land let the spotted owl go and call the Federal Goverment and say.

"Hey I just saw a spotted owl on some wets lands by my house"

Problem solved. Just hope the owl doesn't land in your backyard.

 

[Cam S]

HAHAHA, good idea Mark