MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 57,887
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
Dooleysm,
Be careful what you wish for if you get that road up to county standards and they take it over. Some day they will run a sewer line or water, or other utilities down that road and you will be assessed your fair share of the cost per the road frontage that you have.
My father bought some land and sub-divided it back in the late 50's. He put in a nice gravel road, city water, natural gas lines, electric, etc... about 10 years after that, some of the uppity up neighbors decided they wanted the road paved and city sewers and curbs put in. They got just barely over half the neighbors to sign on and they used a Barrett law to force all of the neighbors to pay their fair share of the project. My father had to come up with thousands of dollars in the late 60s to cover his 300+ feet of road frontage. He had five kids, two of which were in college. It almost bankrupted him. To top it off, the contractor that did the street work did a poor prep job and the road washed out twice in the next five years. The road was closed for a total of about a year and a half. My father had the only access to the neighborhood other than the street. He allowed the good neighbor access to their properties through our yard and threatened the bad neighbors with arrest for tresspassing if they tried to cut through. That forced them to walk in the muddy road to get to their homes. Nobody forgave nobody after that. Half the neighbors on the street ended up hating half the other neighbors on the street until the day they all died or moved away.
Another example:
We own some propery on a sparsley populated secion of state highway. We wanted to build on it. Natural gas was 800 yards down the road. It would cost me about $7000 to get it run to my place. If I paid for it all, after three years, the five property owners clustered around our property could tap into it without having to reimburse me for my costs. I approached each one about pooling our money to get natural gas and split the costs. The all said no thanks. My wife got pregnant, we postponed building. About 5 years later, those 5 neighbors approached me about the gas thing again. I said thanks, but no thanks, as we aren't building now. Guess what? They are mad at me now.
Be careful what you do and consider what will happen later. If it were me, I would just fix the road in front of my place and tell the other neighbors that you can get them a good deal on the road in front of their place if they are interested. I wish you the best of luck.
Be careful what you wish for if you get that road up to county standards and they take it over. Some day they will run a sewer line or water, or other utilities down that road and you will be assessed your fair share of the cost per the road frontage that you have.
My father bought some land and sub-divided it back in the late 50's. He put in a nice gravel road, city water, natural gas lines, electric, etc... about 10 years after that, some of the uppity up neighbors decided they wanted the road paved and city sewers and curbs put in. They got just barely over half the neighbors to sign on and they used a Barrett law to force all of the neighbors to pay their fair share of the project. My father had to come up with thousands of dollars in the late 60s to cover his 300+ feet of road frontage. He had five kids, two of which were in college. It almost bankrupted him. To top it off, the contractor that did the street work did a poor prep job and the road washed out twice in the next five years. The road was closed for a total of about a year and a half. My father had the only access to the neighborhood other than the street. He allowed the good neighbor access to their properties through our yard and threatened the bad neighbors with arrest for tresspassing if they tried to cut through. That forced them to walk in the muddy road to get to their homes. Nobody forgave nobody after that. Half the neighbors on the street ended up hating half the other neighbors on the street until the day they all died or moved away.
Another example:
We own some propery on a sparsley populated secion of state highway. We wanted to build on it. Natural gas was 800 yards down the road. It would cost me about $7000 to get it run to my place. If I paid for it all, after three years, the five property owners clustered around our property could tap into it without having to reimburse me for my costs. I approached each one about pooling our money to get natural gas and split the costs. The all said no thanks. My wife got pregnant, we postponed building. About 5 years later, those 5 neighbors approached me about the gas thing again. I said thanks, but no thanks, as we aren't building now. Guess what? They are mad at me now.
Be careful what you do and consider what will happen later. If it were me, I would just fix the road in front of my place and tell the other neighbors that you can get them a good deal on the road in front of their place if they are interested. I wish you the best of luck.
