Even worse than people who build in the country and mow a 5 acre lawn

[hedgehog]

People who build in the country, mow a 5 acre lawn and then complain about the farm and/or single wide next door!

My town has a mix of working farms, non-working farms and woodlots with one or two trailers, single wides, double wides or manufactured homes. People building McMansions don't want to see this land use on neighboring lots. Local developers are pushing to convert all the land zoned agricultural be converted to residential. Current land owners will be grandfathered, but they won't be allowed to pass the farm to their kids, let alone give their kids 5 acres to set a mobile home on. There are plenty of towns around here already zoned residential; there should be some land left over for us folk who aren't rich.

[Deep13]

1. Assholes

Here, I don't like how you've decorated your apartment. We're going to make a rule so you can't do it that way.

[DS1]

2. Yep

They move up to the country to get away from it all. Then complain about the water and have all the roads dug up. Then complain about the telephone/internet and have more wires put in. Then complain about everything else and sooner or later they're right back where they began, still surrounded by the people they were trying to escape - their old neighbors.

[sheerjoy]

7. Odd,I have lived on y 5 acres in the country

for 20 years and never had any of that happen. Must be a northern thing.

[hedgehog]

15. I suspect it depends on where you live in the South. I wonder if the

same thing is going on in the Atlanta area.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Xithras]

3. Same problem here

I live on a few riverfront acres in a small ranchette area (the 60 acre ranch that had been here previously was carved up in the 1940's). We've been fighting a double battle around here the last few years. First, we have the developers who look at our lots and can't help but visualize the 30-odd stucco boxes that would fit on the land. So far we've done a great job in keeping them out, but the big money buyers have been harder to weed out. We've watched several 40-50 year old homes get bulldozed to make way for these 10000SF monster mansions, and at least one has tried to limit the agricultural rights of his neighbors (thankfully this county has a right-to-farm ordinance which preserves the rights of farmers...if you live in the country, you get to deal with the cow smell).

We discovered here that there is really only one way to fight this stuff. Come election time, challenge those who support this kind of zoning change. If nobody is running, run yourself (county level boards typically only require 4-5 hours a month of your time). Even if you don't win, you might make the incumbent panicky enough about his seat to move back to the side of conservation...or at least be less blatant about pandering to developers.

Planning directors tend to be appointed, but these kinds of challenges even scare THEM. If they're aware that the makeup of the board may change in the next election, and that their job might be eliminated if anti-sprawl advocates take over, they'll be far less likely to be abusive in their decisions. It's only when they consider themselves "immune" from public scrutiny that BS like this shows up.

[ThomCat]

4. People get money and think they have a right to dictate

how/where/if other people are going to live their lives. x(

It's a damned shame that money talks so loudly.

[Iris]

5. I wish they'd just get over themselves. Before long, even they won't be able to dictate.

Cities, towns, and rural communities will be so overdeveloped with tacky-ass, expensive but cheaply built Mc's that there will be nowhere left to go for charm and local color.

[ThomCat]

8. I agree. But I'd be happy even if they just

decided that their egos end at their property lines. They can build all the tacky monstrosities they want on their own land, but leave other people alone on the land next door.

[One_Life_To_Give]

6. Manure, spead Liberally!

You should make sure your gardens are fertilized regularly. At least 3 or 4 times a year. A variety of fresh Cow, Hen and other assorted manure should do the trick. Especially during periods of hot and humid weather.

[ThomCat]

9. LOL! That sounds like an excellent late-night project

for some people with local civic pride. :7

[AllegroRondo]

16. I live not far from a dairy farm

and the cow smell doesnt really bother me. And its kind of fun to watch them walk down from the hills every evening for their dinner.

[hedgehog]

17. Cow manure from a family farm actually can be an attractive odor.

The smell from a 3 acre lagoon on a factory farm is something else!

[skygazer]

10. Don't I know it

Grew up in Vermont and saw plenty of those assholes. They visit from Connecticut or Long Island, fall in love with the place and decide to move there.

First thing they do is start bitching at the town to pave the road. And install streetlights. And stop allowing people to keep livestock on land they've kept livestock on for 6 generations. They want the school bus to run right to their door so Little Johnny doesn't have to walk half a mile to the bus stop like all the local kids have done all their lives. They chop down trees, enlarge the house, put up motion-sensor floodlights and No Trespassing signs.

They bring Connecticut or Long Island right into the Vermont they fell in love with. And then wonder why the locals are so "unfriendly."

[hedgehog]

12. Motion-sensor floodlights? I wish

Around here, some people install municipality sized lights all around the house and leave them on all night. So much for being able to see the stars!

[Inchworm]

11. It is happening here as well

Small farms on decline, farmers children selling off land after its willed to them, big fancy homes.. etc.

Very sad to watch.

:cry:

[hedgehog]

14. The situation here is that if the zoning ordinance changes, the kids inheriting

the farm will be legally barred from farming it!

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Oh yeah. That kind whines about the double wides too....and about having to haul trash to the dump.

In my hometown in Maine people bought new construction condos built over a former working wharf and complained about the smell of the bait company one wharf over. They also wanted the city to do something to move the seagulls away from the area because the condo decks were covered in guano. Um, did they think those fishing boats were Maine Disneyland?