Be careful what you wish for....
Back in the late 50's my father and a partner bought 20 acres on the edge of town and subdivided it. My father kept the largest lot for himself, a small lot right next to it for his parents in the future, the partner kept a large lot on the corner, and they sold 14 other lots. The city ran a storm drain though the partner's lot, ruining it, he sued, the city bought the corner lot and the partner moved to California. So there were 17 lots total, one owned by the city. My dad had natural gas and city water run in the neighborhood. All the lots had septic systems, no city sewer. He left the road gravel. About 5 years after all the houses were built, around 1968, several people wanted the street paved and maintained by the city. My father did not. The city said they wouldn't pave with out putting in city sewer, with the stipulation that if you septic ever failed, you had to connect to city sewer. Half of the lot owners did not want it done. However, half did. 8 to 8 tie. But the city owned the 17th lot. So they passed a barrett law with the city tipping the majority and everyone on the block had to pay for city sewer lines, curbs, paving, etc... based on road frontage! Since my dad had the largest lot, and an extra lot, he got soaked for the largest portion of the road and sewer work. The barrett law means the city sets up a payment plan for X years for you to pay your bill. It about bankrupted my father, as he'd recently lost his job and had to start over at lower wages. It also didn't sit well with 8 out of 16 property owners that didn't want it and couldn't afford it. My parents and several of the other not so well-off neighbors pleaded with the others to not do it, but they basically told all of them to pound sand. Bad blood existed between the adults in that neighborhood for well over 20 years after that.
Now for a little revenge....
The city hired an incompetent contractor to do the sewer and road work. They hit the water main, it burst, and sprayed violently onto the house of one of the people that spearheaded the barrett law. It ripped the shingles off their roof and damaged quit a bit of the front of their house. They put the curbs in but before they paved, we had torrential rains, it washed down the hill, washed out half of the curbing on the entire block, followed the dirt path over the newly installed sewer pipes, and washed out about 3-400 feet of the center of the street down to about 10' deep, actually moving the pipe sections down the block!
So, they had to dig everything out, put it all back in, refill everything, and start over. The entire street was closed for over a year. And, the only way to easily access the block was to park behind my father's house in the cemetery and cut through his yard. Of course, my father put up no trespassing signs, and only let the people that were on his side of the issue through. The others were forced to walk around and come down the entire length of the construction zone on foot in the mud. :laughing:
Then, about 6 months after they finally opened the street, all of the curbs caved in after another torrential rain, because the contractor didn't compact the fill dirt from the first incident. The city made them remove all of the curbing, cut 4' into the street from both sides, dig out all the dirt, re-compact it, and put in new curbs. So the street was closed for another 6 months, and again, my dad refused to let certain people cut through his yard.
It was a good civics lesson for me at a young age, in that I learned that groups of people can force other groups of people to comply with majority rule, even if they cannot afford it. And private property is private property, and you cannot enter it without permission. There were other lessons I learned, too. Like you better read your lot deed before you purchase. My father and mother put in a clause that no trees over X inches in diameter could be removed without the XXX land company approval. Mom and dad maintained XXX land company until they died. There were also several other restrictions that my parents maintained control over. Many people didn't realize that until after the street debacle, and got on my parent's bad side. It got pretty ugly for a long, long time.
It's one of the reasons I'd never live where there's an HOA, or any joint group type situation.
