A good friend of mine owns a home on a busy state highway that’s zoned commercial. It’s in a town that is a very expensive community to live in. As a matter of fact it is THE most expensive place in the state as far as home prices go. Median price = $800,000
Developers have been building office space on this road for the last few years. Because of the demographics it consists of lots of medical offices. Now my buddy is just a working stiff, he still actually lives in the home. He wanted to sell it to a developer with approvals to build a 5000 sq. ft. office building, that way he gets the most for his property. This guy has been put through the ringer by a neighboring condo association and the town. His lot is just over 1 acre the town requires 2 acres but has granted variances numerous times on the same road for exactly the same building on the same size lot.
Here’s the good part… My friend is just about to throw in the towel and sell it as raw land to a developer who has connections in town and much deeper pockets than my buddy. But before he does I suggest that he make a formal application to build “AFFORDABLE HOUSING” on it. Well, guess what? Instantly, like magic, he has his approvals.
Apparently just the thought of people living in this community who don’t make $300,000/ year got everyones attention. the condo association immediately dropped any objections to the office building, the officials at town hall who wouldn’t lift a finger to help this guy a month ago could not get this paper work processed fast enough. Most of these types of towns don’t even come close to meeting federal affordable housing numbers, as a result it is virtually impossible for them to block a project like this. They can however approve an alternative. Amazing!
We were in the process of negotiating a farm purchase with this guy and he told of the last farm he had sold in another state. He was bordered by a rich celebrity who owns a lot of ranches in our area. He figured to get top dollar from this celebrity, but wasn’t getting anywhere until he told them he wasn’t looking to sell anymore, instead he figured he could make more money by putting up a giant pig barn. ;D Guess which way the prevailing winds were? The celebrity coughed up the money in a hurry.
beautiful!!!
Great post. I often deal with these types of situations with neighbors/community members who have nothing better to do than poke their nose in everyone else’s business. I play by the rules, I do what is a matter of right, I get permits and they still cause problems. Your post gave me some great ideas.
The maximum amount of leverage and fright can be applied if zoning permits a hog farm. Keep in mind it doesn’t take several hundred. A half dozen oinkers will get hundreds up yupsters in gear.
Down the street from where I work are 3 decent sized dairy farms. Some yuppies from NYC bought a house down the street a few years back and after moving in complained about the smell from the dairy farms and trying to get the town to do something. Keep in mind the yuppies just moved in from out of state and the farms have been in business for 100+ years. Maybe they shouldn’t have bought sight unseen?
Thankfully I don’t farm near a city. (or even a town for that matter :biggrin) I hear a lot of stories about out of state people coming in and wanting to live “in the country” and then trying to retool everything to be like they have it in the big city. What a pain in the butt for those businesses that have been there for 100 years.
Sometimes you just want to grab people by the throat and shake them real good. :rolleyes
