Construction

[CrealCritter]

A friend of mine in north Carolina called me up last week. I'll share a bit of our conversation here because I think it's something that's interesting.

When I met Fred he lived on a dirt road in-between two 120 acre farm fields. He was the only house on this dirt road. He had a well, two holer out house and septic system on 5 acres. That was about 17 years ago or so.

Farmer to the north died and his childern inherited the 120 acres. They sold it to a developer that had it approved for two single family homes per acre. Fred's dirt road was made into a two lane striped black top and he had all kinds of new neighbors. For the first time in a long time he told me he had to start keeping things locked up because his stuff would sprout legs and wind up missing. His home owners insurance went up "a lot" because he kept having stuff stolen. At this time he also got "city water and sewage". Which he pays for every month. Whereas before he didn't have this monthly water bill.

So fast forward and yep you guessed it the famer to the south died and exactly the same thing has happened... Childern sold the land to a developer, but this time it was zoned for 8 houses per acre. You realize how big an 1/8 of an acre is? 5445 sqft .

When the county paved the road he lost 30' to the north and when they came to survey he lost another 30ft south. Now he is having to move two out buildings back at least 30 foot so he's not encroaching on the south side developers land. And now after the developer builds he will be surrounded on all four sides with subdivisions instead of sweet potato fields. Needless to say he was hopping mad when he was talking to me. He told me he might just sell his 5 acres to the developer and move out in the middle of nowhere. I told him isn't in the middle of nowhere where you moved to in the first place and look what happened? Who's to say it won't happen again? That made him think... I'll stop here and won't bore you with any of the rest of the conversation.

But I guess, I shared this conversation with you all for two reasons.

1) when you build, make darn sure it's ALL on your property.

2) you never know what might pop up around you that you might not like so much.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[FarmerJamie]

This post got me remembering some land use and policy classes I took years ago. The history of Tyson's Corner in Virginia is a textbook case study in urban land use. Fascinating stuff, IMO. Sleepy little intersection grew quickly into a retail/office mega park area. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_city


To your point, explosive development is still happening in some areas. It stinks to be negatively affected by it.

 

[Hinotori]

I researched possible future development before we bought this place. I refused to look at anything less than 5 acres or in an HOA. No lahar zone or landslide.

We cannot be developed around. State is very protective of waterways and marshes. We have 2 streams that run though, marsh, plus the giant pond that is mostly on the neighbors. Zoned Rural Sensitive Resource, Wildlife Corridor, and Sensitive Waterway. Zoning has gotten more restricted over the rears. It used to be RR5 and is now RR10. County restricts subdivisions to the Urban Growth Area that marks out an 80 year plan.

We didn't plan to farm so the few cleared and dry acres up front is enough for us. We leave the dry forest at the back alone. Technically we could put a second house up if we wanted as that is allowed.

 

[Hinotori]

So a friend of mine works a family farm (200 acres I think) that has been there over 100 years. Cattle and other livestock. Land next to their was sold to a developer. Forest clear-cut and HOA McMansions went up. People complained she had cattle in the pasture their fences werw against. Threatened lawsuit and wanted her to put up a fence 50 feet away from their's.

She said "Fine. I'll move the cattle." She know the farmer friendly laws. Cattle went on other side and she moved the pigs over into the pasture next to their fence. Cops laughed at the jerks. Judge laughed them out of court, ordered they pay court costs, and quit harassing a working farm they knew the farm was there when they bought the place.



The county here also made it illegal to harrass gun ranges that were in existence before subdivisions went in. Can't sue them for normal activities. The gun ranges in question all were 60-80 years older than the subdivisions and built in rural areas that just happen to be town now.

 

[CrealCritter]

So a friend of mine works a family farm (200 acres I think) that has been there over 100 years. Cattle and other livestock. Land next to their was sold to a developer. Forest clear-cut and HOA McMansions went up. People complained she had cattle in the pasture their fences werw against. Threatened lawsuit and wanted her to put up a fence 50 feet away from their's.

She said "Fine. I'll move the cattle." She know the farmer friendly laws. Cattle went on other side and she moved the pigs over into the pasture next to their fence. Cops laughed at the jerks. Judge laughed them out of court, ordered they pay court costs, and quit harassing a working farm they knew the farm was there when they bought the place.



The county here also made it illegal to harrass gun ranges that were in existence before subdivisions went in. Can't sue them for normal activities. The gun ranges in question all were 60-80 years older than the subdivisions and built in rural areas that just happen to be town now.

The main reason why we moved is the guy next to us was trying to get his 80 acres zoned for a camp ground. He has a beautiful piece of property and it would make a nice camp ground. But I don't want to live next to a camp ground .

Jesus is Lord and Christ