Some developers are swine.

[bdhsfz6]

A developer I knew summed it up when he said "Everyone wants to be the last one in".

 

[paulsharvey]

BTW, our OP lists lot size as 3 acres; but hes complaining about subdividing, and small lots broken from larger parcels. How exactly was your 3 acre parcel created? It most likely started as an 80 acre piece?

 

[riptides]

Phrases that influenced what you see below - Lack of Transparency, Special Interests, Developers Rights, By Right Development, Zoning Changes.....different BoS directions.....20 year Master Plans, Rural Crescent...

This is what happened in 10 years just a few miles north of me. Another farm just was sold off to a developer too. We estimate another 1000 homes coming to the area. We think an additional 34 data centers are on the books too...

The area once had about a 100 Dairy Farms in the 1960's. Today there are none.

 

[dodge man]

I worked as a land surveyor with a civil engineering firm. Of all the projects I worked on, I can only think of one where people fought it and won. A Walmart. I’m not sure the neighborhood won or Walmart just decided the market wasn’t there.

 

[deezler]

This is what happened in 10 years just a few miles north of me. Another farm just was sold off to a developer too. We estimate another 1000 homes coming to the area. We think an additional 34 data centers are on the books too...

Thats nuts. Data centers in VA are already over 25% of your states electrical consumption, probably heading towards 50%. Are you seeing an impact on your monthly energy bills from this increased demand?

 

[riptides]

Thats nuts. Data centers in VA are already over 25% of your states electrical consumption, probably heading towards 50%. Are you seeing an impact on your monthly energy bills from this increased demand?

Energy bills....oh h*** yeah.

Some say our bills will double in the next five years too.

And the infrastructure build out for that hot mess directly impacts my county. As well as others of course.

 

[LHF2019]

That's the problem. The family that owned the farm put covenants or restrictions on the property prohibiting it being developed. After it was passed to the daughter, she hired a lawyer and had the restrictions removed. So here we are.

It’s too bad previous owners didn’t go through the right channels to make sure land stayed as they requested. What’s the point in trying to protect something if it can just be changed anyway. And shame on the daughter not respecting the wishes. Obviously she kept a straight face all the while waiting on the inevitable to cash out. This kind of stuff pisses me off.

 

[Tomtint]

Got notice last week that a developer has applied to build a subdivision across the street from me. Plan shows 72 houses on 64 acres with four retention ponds. NW corner borders a small creek. Neighbors are up in arms, I guess the FB thread (or whatever they are called, I don't do FB) was nearly a riot a friend said.
Here's what REALLY pisses me off. A few years ago, I had a conversation with one of the owners of the farm that I knew they were getting on and wouldn't be able to keep the farm up much longer, and she assured me that they had put covenants on the property that prohibited the property being developed because she knew it would be terrible for the neighborhood. Well, after they passed and the property went to their daughter, a developer friend of hers offered to buy the land and he would pay the legal bills to get the covenants removed. So that was accomplished and now we're looking at a few years of construction, noise, a lot more traffic, 72 septic systems, 72 more wells (a couple of people in the area have already had to put in deeper wells), more pollution from 72 lawns getting several doses of insecticides, herbicides and fertilizer every year.
I will have the back yards of four houses directly across from my property, a total of 16 will either face the road or face the other way. 10 will have driveways directly onto the county road in addition to the main entrance.
So tomorrow at 9:30AM there is going to be a huge turnout at the Planning Commission meeting for the approval or denial of the plan. Hope it doesn't get ugly, as some have on occasion.
The real problem I see, is that the members of the commission have virtually rubber stamped a bunch of projects this developer has submitted, even when there was overwhelming opposition against them. Part of the problem is that they are appointed, not elected, and really have no stake in the game, as it's nearly impossible to get them removed, past experience shows.
There's some talk of hiring a lawyer and I told them I would definitely support that if it became necessary.
Slimy friggin' developers...

Forgot to mention, I've lived here for 51 years. When I moved here, there were only about 20 homes within a mile of me. Now there are over 700, and almost no farm land is left.

This is the typical response from a NIMBY ..”Not in my back yard” .. rest assured your home was once not welcome by your neighbors ..51 years ago.. but somehow everyone managed. .. The difference between a developer and a conservationist …is that the conservationists built his house last year.
If someone wants to stop development, it’s pretty simple..buy the property and sit on it yourself..pay the taxes and upkeep and it’s yours to do as you please.
Developers no matter how big or small always run into NIMBYs.. all the time..it’s part of the job.
They are accustomed to town meeting pushback, neighbor complaints, FB tantrums, news paper bashing, name calling.. the list is long and basically irrelevant.
If a developer is heavily invested and gets too much pushback from the town permitting process…They have every right to bypass that all together and just do affordable housing in huge numbers.. probably 10-15x more density than what is being proposed now…And the town..and neighbor are powerless to do anything about it.
They have every best course of action is to meet privately with the opposition group, gat a consensus of your thoughts and desires, ..Nominate a spokesperson for your group to speak with the developer and town officials on a way to move forward with the plans that will not slow down the development. This may be appealing to the builder if is streamlines the permit process and saves legal and other soft costs.
Request buffers, request down llighting, request landscaping at entrances etc. all of this is easily doable early on. ..

 

[kenmbz]

In our old town the Mayor had a plan, they rezoned commercial to build a few houses.
Sold it as younger and older couples.
When it got approved, we then found out it was 800 town houses.
We fought it, and while we fought it another development went up with 200 townhouses that never made a single planning meeting.
When we tried to stop the 800 town houses, the developer sued the town and had documents for a preliminary ok, even though it was for only single family housing, he used that to say it's why he bought the property.
The lawsuit had plenty of lawyers, on the developers side. The 800 town houses are still being built to this day.
They also snuck in some more townhouses behind another development while the court case was happening.

So a town of 16,000 went up 3200 + people. They had to expand 2 elementary schools, build another middle school, hire more firefighters and police.

Whoever could move, did so. My taxes are now 1/2 of what they were in my old town.
And they just started building and whole development of 200 townhouses and some single family homes.

We met quite a few people who moved to our area, only to see the next town over start building townhouses, all over $1million to start. The town next door in the other direction built thousands of town houses and apartments.

Our town is limited to 5 acre lots, it's unusual to see a new house here , I think we had 2 in the last 8 years on new property. Our neighbors even went and bought the 2 empty fields slated to get houses to make sure we didn't have buildings in our backyards.

Now one of the developers here is running for Mayor. I have met him a few times and am scared as having a person who is on both sides of the line make decisions that could give him more $ is not good. Unfortunately, our voting is separate (township) from the town. So I have no say in what might impact us.

So local town meetings, even with people showing up in droves, does not sway the decisions very much. Money and lawyers drives this.

The Mayor in our old town bought a huge retirement mansion down south on a civil service job and then Mayor pay. One of the council members went to buy a huge building to build out a coffee shop, and it got so over the top he finally backed out of the deal. He worked at Home Depot and not as a manager.

 

[4570Man]

It’s too bad previous owners didn’t go through the right channels to make sure land stayed as they requested. What’s the point in trying to protect something if it can just be changed anyway. And shame on the daughter not respecting the wishes. Obviously she kept a straight face all the while waiting on the inevitable to cash out. This kind of stuff pisses me off.

Maybe donate it to a state park if you really care. Otherwise quite trying to tell the next owners what to do with their property. If your daughter isn’t going to farm why would you want her burdened with property taxes insurance and maintenance for property that’s effectively worthless? Possibly hundreds of people have owned your land before you have. Did you consult their wishes before you built on it?