Got to love developments in rural areas

[bdhsfz6]

A lot of these ordinances are on shaky ground legally, here in N.H. several have been overturned by the courts.

Ordinances here in PA face the same pushback from landlords & the legal system. Courts here seem to agree that adjacent property owner complaints should be handled by law enforcement.

The problem is, many of the Pocono Mountain vacation communities are covered by a regional police department which does not have the manpower to respond to the large number of complaints. The state police will not respond either unless it's a shooting, an assault or drug related. Unfortunately, it often is.

 

[Oaktree]

Ordinances here in PA face the same pushback from landlords & the legal system. Courts here seem to agree that adjacent property owner complaints should be handled by law enforcement.

The problem is, many of the Pocono Mountain vacation communities are covered by a regional police department which does not have the manpower to respond to the large number of complaints. The state police will not respond either unless it's a shooting, an assault or drug related. Unfortunately, it often is.

Not quite that bad here, but our town doesn't have it's own police dept. either and has to rely on the state police (already spread thin) for coverage. Trouble is we don't have any sort of noise ordinance either, so all the cops can do is to ask that renters keep the noise down.

 

[marhar]

My

I drive a road home generally after work a lot times (right around here you cross into a different county). The other day, on this road, signs all over the road stating "Save Conrad Road, STOP the development". Couldn't figure out what the deal was.

Then in yesterdays paper, found it...

Neighbors battle plan to build 61 houses on tree-lined Conrad Road in Lewisville

Developers eyeing a 58-acre tract along scenic Conrad Road being opposed by neighbors and nearby residents.

journalnow.com

Funny thing, what the paper doesn't tell you is all the McMansions with 5 acres built 3 or 4 years ago parked off the same road. I just find it funny people spend at least 700k on homes with 5 acres in a rural area and now are fighting more homes going up around them. I get it, but a part of me thinks "tough titties".

THIS is why we went in the hole and bought our land. I expect down the road that people may build across our rural road, and God knows how may houses could be built on that land, BUT...ain't no one building in front or in back of our house LOL

Coming from Lewisville, this smaller house went up at the beginning of Conrad road. I can't imagine why ANONE would buy a house with the height difference of ground no more than 20' in front of your home (it's like 5' wide flat in front of the house and then a hill...).

View attachment 736656

My goal is to buy property as it come available around the farm. Don't get me wrong, I could not afford to buy a home like the one in the picture. I have, however been fortunate enough to buy the back side of some pasture (land locked joining the farm) and a double wide across the road. I want to keep the farm as rural as I can afford.....it is hard.

 

[MossRoad]

Not quite that bad here, but our town doesn't have it's own police dept. either and has to rely on the state police (already spread thin) for coverage. Trouble is we don't have any sort of noise ordinance either, so all the cops can do is to ask that renters keep the noise down.

In our county, we have the following police departments:
- city and town police departments; 6 of them.
- a county police department. They cover anything outside of cities and towns.
- the state police
- the airport police
- the Tribal Police of the Pokagon band of the Potawatomi Indians
- the University of Notre Dame police
- the Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division
- the Indiana State Excise Police
- the Memorial Hospital Police
- 4 different railroad police departments

We used to have a South Bend Park Police department, too, but that is defunct.

The Tribal Police are cross-deputized with the County Police, so the two can help each other out with no issues.

So, that's about 18 different police departments for less than 275,000 people and about 460 square miles.

We are kind of fortunate in that aspect. Always quick responses whether emergency or not.

 

[kenmbz]

In my former neighborhood, the town pushed back initially on developers.
Who then sued the town as punishment.
The town gave in, and some of the town people went and bought businesses after the developers finished!

The town had to give in though, the developers had a lot of lawyers and experience in getting what they wanted.
The town did stop 2 more developments, but the cause was more about traffic flows and the overload onto state roads slowed down the development process.

I spent part of my childhood on Long Island in NY.
We had some great trees on the southern state parkway from a former wealthy estate (the Belmonts)
These were never allowed to be cut down by the original deed to the towns.
Eventually the towns just claimed the trees were dying and took them all down.
Big fight to stop it, but to no avail.

One of the reasons I moved farther out from NY-->NJ--->PA, No train lines or major highways within a few miles.
And strict lot size requirements. And a lot of people much wealthier than I to fight any development (Many of them developers I might add!).

Even in PA the towns are being developed. My wife is from 2 towns over, which was a small quiet town on the Delaware River, now filled with townhouses to the point of bursting.

 

[MossRoad]

Zoning means zippo here. There's supposed to be a 20 acre minimum with 600' of road frontage minimum to be a single buildable lot. It's disguised as farm land preservation. So the large developers that have the same last names as the people on the zoning board of appeal or other connected families in the county just buy up 80 acre parcels one after the other, and submit plans for developed communities with roads, drainage, etc., and get re-zoned from AG to residential with 65 lots. It's rampant. So, we bought land on the opposite side of the large towns, surrounded by lowlands with high water tables, hoping it'll be the last to be developed as housing or industrial. So far, so good. But, we'll see.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Another problem we have in my rural part of the state is property owners in a development who refuse to contribute to private road maintenance. Some contribute their time, labor and equipment to the task while others contribute money. Unfortunately, there are always those who do neither.

What gripes me personally is the attitude of these deadbeats. They actually seem proud of the fact that they are getting something for nothing.

We have an informal POA that collects dues and oversees road maintenance. Membership is mandatory and is so written into all property deeds. Unfortunately, this process has no legal foundation whatsoever. The POA has consulted lawyers who say there is nothing that can be done legally. All they recommend is to take the non contributors to small claims court. When that happens, the court rules in their favor 100% of the time stating lack of legal precedence.

I guess it must be a rural problem since POA's in urban & suburban locations have the power to put liens on the property of non contributors.

I've seen other rural developments in this part of the state deal with the issue by just letting the private road deteriorate. Eventually, it gets so bad that delivery services, mail carriers, etc claim it's too dangerous to use. As a result, property values go down.

 

[Oaktree]

Another problem we have in my rural part of the state is property owners in a development who refuse to contribute to private road maintenance. Some contribute their time, labor and equipment to the task while others contribute money. Unfortunately, there are always those who do neither.

What gripes me personally is the attitude of these deadbeats. They actually seem proud of the fact that they are getting something for nothing.

A colleague of mine lives in one of those developments. The way the bylaws were written, all owners must approve any community property maintenance/upgrades. Of course, there was one owner who always would refuse to play ball. I think he eventually moved, and the new owners agreed to change the rules to a 2/3 majority.

Glad I live on a town road.

 

[TheMan419]

In our county, we have the following police departments:
- city and town police departments; 6 of them.
- a county police department. They cover anything outside of cities and towns.
- the state police
- the airport police
- the Tribal Police of the Pokagon band of the Potawatomi Indians
- the University of Notre Dame police
- the Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division
- the Indiana State Excise Police
- the Memorial Hospital Police
- 4 different railroad police departments

We used to have a South Bend Park Police department, too, but that is defunct.

The Tribal Police are cross-deputized with the County Police, so the two can help each other out with no issues.

So, that's about 18 different police departments for less than 275,000 people and about 460 square miles.

We are kind of fortunate in that aspect. Always quick responses whether emergency or not.

I guess that depends on how you define quick....

We have called 911 twice. Once when I tried to die from cardiac arrest and the other when someone was pounding on our back door at 9:30 at night in the winter (pitch black outside). both times it took emergency response over 10 minutes to arrive. That feels like an eternity and could have been fatal for me in the first instance and fatal for the "bad guy" in the second instance.

I feel for the folks that are going to respond that in their community response time would have been 30 minutes or more.

 

[skipmarcy]

When seconds count, police are just minutes away ...