<font color="green"> "However why in the world does John Q not still have the right to do what he was doing before the project went in. Or why now can't the farmer move his equipment between fields on the roads because the $50k mercedes is going to get mud on it. And why now can't the farmer run his equipment after 9pm." </font>
Actually, in New York they usually can.
Here we require buyers of homes near a farm sign a disclosure indicating that they know there may be farming activities, including the smell of manure and tractors running at night. Most towns here encourage farming and give very generous tax classifications to protect farmers from being put out of business by high property taxes. Some towns also work lucrative deals where the Farmer sells his development rights to the Town for Cash and the property, since it can't be developed without the Town's participation, is assessed at a much lower rate and is taxed much less. The Farmer can "cash out" and still keep farming his land. My town is spending something like $8,000,000 to $10,000,000 to preserve farms and other "open space" this year. The state even had a program a few years ago that gave grants to repair and preserve Barns.
Given that our state is controlled by legislators from New York City and Long Island, who forget the state extends west of the Hudson River, I would have expected other states to be more farm friendly. Go figure.
Further, I don't always believe the rumors that farming activities have been prohibited. If you look back this thread you will see that the original premise, that tractors were being banned in this town, was not entirely correct. One of the posters said he talked to the mayor and it only affected a small area where there were no working farms. As AndyMa said, you have to look at the facts before you jump to conclusions.
Your post shows a lot of frustration. I expect there is the same frustration on the other side of the fence. I'm not taking sides. I live in a very expensive neighborhood. Mine is the only large property and I'm the only one with a tractor and the only one with a loader, boxblade, blade, utility trailer, mound of wood chips and big stacks of fire wood in my side yard. I'd be unhappy if someone told me I had to store that stuff out of site. But I would also understand.
My point is that for every frustrated farmer there's probably a frustrated homeowner.
It's all a matter of perspective.