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It's a bitter subject, but the relentlessness of these developers is never ending. My town is a disaster, with all the proposed developments including a super walmart and we already have one that sits on top of an old farm, literally bulldozed away in '95, town was smart not letting them have what they wanted then, now they are back and the parking lot will be connected to the little league field parking lot it is so close. Well, no sense in further describing the mayhem on the horizon here, it's d@mned depressing, and I always thought there has to be a better use for such good farm land than exploitation by developers, of aging farmers that have a firm tax choke hold on them or another unbalanced financial burden. Can't blame em for selling, can't blame someone wanting to buy, develop and profit, but some of these darned developers already sit on a fortune, when is enough enough ??? Get involved, don't sit back, get all the adjacent landowners invloved and see what they think, you might be able to petition the town for a super majority vote on the zoning change. Research the criteria, local laws, state laws, pool some $$ if you can and use a qualified attorney to review same. See what environmental processes need to take place, like the initial draft scope environmental impact statement the developer must provide if mandated by law. You have to start this now, right at the conceptual stage, make that developer follow the rules and take em to task on anything you can, but do it with a smile and do it diplomatically, nothing personal, just business. Confrontation, heresay, arguing and bitterness won't do it and is a waste of time and energy. I'm not much on committees and activist groups and all, but when faced with something like this, just to keep the township or municipality in check, there has to be representation, and the concerned citizens should be heard. I'm not sure how the laws are written there, someone has to review the developers plans and the laws besides the township, or lead agency that will approve such zoning changes and developments, independent of all parties involved, strictly for the citizens who are concerned. I despise the people who occupy new places like these and take it upon themselves to try and isolate a farmer or a landowner on issues like odors, dust, noise etc., or what have you. My new neighbor about 10 or so years ago called the state police on me while I was practicing markmanship with a rifle, way beyond the minimum legal distance from their annoying residence, yet I needed the police to investigate something we have been doing for 30 years, same mentality about dust, noise and odors. People are not neighborly nor are they polite or considerate anymore, so you have to get involved when threatened with development regardless of how it goes, if you don't they will steamroll and bulldoze you into a corner, it's what they do. It's sad, as I never say never, don't give up easily and have always been a tenacious opponent when pushed, but these developers are fueled by profit and many by greed on top of that, so many of them are already super wealthy, when is enough enough ? And as mentioned, it does not seem like they will be stopped in much of this country. We have an activist group comprised of some very dedicated people who have worked hard and been diligent about presenting concerns to the town, go to the documents page, everyone of those places is ag land and the homepage photo is our wetland connected to our land. This group is criticized by many, those same people ought to be thankful for the hard work these people have done to keep the town and developers in check, aside from their busy lives.
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