Some developers are swine.

[BravoXray]

It sounds like you should have written a check and bought the land. Then you would have the right to say what happens there.

I never had a chance to buy it. It was willed to the daughter and the developer was a friend of hers.

 

[BravoXray]

Where about is this at in N. Indiana?

North of Goshen.

 

[BleedingOrange]

BravoXray, not sure how much experience you have had over the years with hiring lawyers, but be very careful about hiring lawyers. From discussions I have had with several friends, and my past experiences with them, they verbally promise you the moon, time drags on, and all you get is delays and frustration. Then they eventually loose the case, and you still have to pay them huge amounts of money, for supposed work that was mainly done by a clerk, at lawyers wages !
The only way I would hire a lawyer any more is, they only get paid IF they win the case.

 

[ConawayFarms]

Yeah, once the county starts rubber stamping those projects, it's hard to stop the train. Lawyers might be your only shot, but even then, most commissions already have their minds made up before the meeting starts.

 

[Midniteoyl]

North of Goshen.

Seems to be quite a bit of development up there. Sucks, but that is the next little 'hot spot' it seems.

 

[dodge man]

I’m not necessarily a pro development person but if you don’t own the property you don’t control it. Why shouldn’t the owners be allowed to develop it? I don’t blame you for being against it though.

 

[tradosaurus]

If the houses go up, they will already have won. No one will pay any attention to you, especially if you are cranky. Besides, once the houses are in, your property value should go way up, I'm guessing.

As well as property taxes going way up. It stinks but I don't see what can be done about it.
I'm sure anyone in the approval process has been bought off.

 

[riptides]

So around here, friends or not, zoning changes require public hearings. There were and are huge legal battles going on pitting neighbor against neighbor and developer against both. Seems the word - transparency - is used a lot. Meaning the developers were not forthright with information made available to the public about the breadth and scope of their project.

You may have to spend some time at the court house to see if all the rules and regulations for the development were followed.

Good luck.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

That sucks, I feel your pain! I would be pissed too.

A buddy of mine owns 30 acres of mostly floodplain across the creek from me. I saw a re-zoning sign on it the other day and looked it up on the county website, my heart just dropped. Him and the guy that owns another 30 acres downstream allowed a developer to submit a plan to put in like 70 houses on the 2 plots of land. Luckily they withdrew their plan because it was far too big of a development, in floodplain requiring acres of fill, that would remove lots of wetland. But it still put a scare in me. Even though this guy is a pretty good freind of mine I will fight any such development there going forward. I am not opposed to a modest development, but what they had planned was absolutely ridiculous.

Not sure what you can do in your case without them pushing some sort of line like wetland or floodplain issues. The wells could be an issue though. Good luck! You might want to start planting some screening plants like arborvite now though, just incase it doesn't go your way.