In this wonderful world of corpo late stage capitalism, guessing the answer is not a chance. But I was wondering if anyone has ever been successful in stopping development of farm/forest land. The town im in keeps developing like crazy (for who im not sure, as there’s still a decent homeless population and empty housing but anyway). My place is in an unincorporated area, with a couple neighbors and a beautiful field/trees across the road. I worry more every year they are going to concrete wasteland it and put a fricken 10th McDonald’s right near me. Yes, im spoiled. But im guessing the only possible way to stop it would be to buy the land, or maybe get all the neighbors together to buy it? It’s probably about 20 ish acres. Like i said, im pretty sure the easier option is to move away, unfortunately.
You are a NIMBY! Sprawl does suck, I just always think it’s funny that people move somewhere they like and then think nobody else will.
Where I live, yes you would have to buy the land, but then can get the government to pay you something back if you promise not to develop it, there is a conservation program to preserve wild land. Maybe there is something like that by you.
It’s a game over my dude . No matter what you do
A bag of white sugar thrown into a cement mixer will prevent the cement from ever setting
Unless you can bribe multiple senators, judges, and local authorites…
That’s gonna be a big “Negatory,” dawg.
But it’s possible to rally other locals to raise enough Hell about it, maybe.
There are only 2 things that can’t be lawyered out of existence:
- Buy the land and refuse to sell under any circumstances, but you might get eminent domained (or your local equivalent).
- Blow up whatever gets built, but then you won’t be around to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Basically the only real answer is to be so rich you can out-buy or out-lawyer anyone else.
Yep. There’s an Irish pub in my town that refused to sell to condo developers. The condo is still being built, literally around and on top of it, but at least it wasn’t demolished.
ITT: a mix of NIMBYs and people who don’t know how zoning works
I’ve sat in zoning board meetings where the board and public were equally clueless.
Try to identify the area as a habitat/ migration route for an endangered species? This is better pre-orange doofus.
Buy the land and put it in a trust, or incorporate and establish zoning laws.
The town im in keeps developing like crazy (for who im not sure, as there’s still a decent homeless population and empty housing but anyway)
Supply and demand. Build more and prices stop rising and maybe some people without homes will be able to catch up.
There’s a housing crisis and we need more housing built everywhere. Especially dense, walkable housing. From the sound of it they’re building car-dependent sprawl around you.
Not a lawyer, but the only thing I can think of is if you incorporated and then banned anything like that in the area - but that’s a massive amount of lift I’m pretty sure
That would be pretty difficult. You’re basically talking about organizing a town, running for mayor, winning the election, imposing your own zoning rules with no exception process…
not very likely to succeed
Definitely. Just the only way I can think of to actually prevent it
Any meaningful answer to this question will require knowing where you live, for the powers of governments, the legal systems, your rights as a citizen and your possibilities of claiming those rights against the government all vary wildly all over the world.
