10 acres next door to my mini home and farm just sold out of the blue to an apartment development company. No site plans and will require A LOT of $$$ to make work but guess it will happen.
What can I do to protect my mini farm? And if it’s built, what kinds of things should I ask for in terms of privacy. My ring is within 50 feet of the property line and I hate to think of all the spooking possibilities. The property in question will have to be re-zoned and is currently totally undeveloped. My neighbor says that we should be able to make some demands for privacy fences/berms/or something but I’m totally at a loss. Any ideas? Wish it wasn’t so.
Can you contact your county and are what is zoned for in terms of how many units it can have?? Not sure where you are but in my neck of the woods I’d be more worried about a trailer park. 10-20 homes would be a blessing…
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I’m so sorry!
A perimeter electric fence?
A per item charge for every piece of construction trash you have to pick up from your property?
And the cost of vet bills for any injury to your horses because of said trash?
Estheticly, I like the berm, but it might be ineffective once tenants move in.
I would say try to protect yourself and your animals if you won’t move. Horses are considered an “attractive nusance”, and you know they will be constently watching and complaining to anyone that will listen.
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Double fence, hot wire and start planting evergreen screens now. Make sure you get a survey to establish property lines.
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Good luck but you will not get any consideration for the developer…like LauraKY said start planting that evergreen screen now. All you can do is wait for the re-zoning hearing and voice concern but unless there are lots of mini farms in the area of this sold property your green screen is the best defense. You will shortly be the one getting the complaints about flies, manure smells…etc
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Because the property adjoins yours, you should be given notice of any zoning changes that are being asked for. Make sure you attend every hearing about changing the zoning and make your voice heard.
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Be sure you engage his other neighbors as well.
Check the county master plan to see if the proposed development is compatible.
Be loud early in the process.
Good Luck.
COnsider talking to a lawyer now to map out your options.
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Can you ask for an environmental impact study of how building on that land will affect surrounding farms? How storm water run off will be handled? That might make fighting zoning changes easier.
Ask for thick tall evergreen hedges of something not toxic to horses.
If they do develop and they plan to landscape you might give them a list of plants toxic to horses so no clippings or wind blown leaves will end up in your pasture.
I wonder if the units would sell or rent if you put a big sign up, " ALTER’S PRODUCTION PIG FARM AND BEAGLE KENNEL" 
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You need to talk to the planning and zoning authority for your area, asap. They will talk to you because you are their customer, a tax-paying citizen in their ballpark.
Take the long view as you address what this new development will mean to you and how you want to respond to it. If you can’t stand living there any more, I wouldn’t put a lot of money into things you would leave behind when you yourself sell out and move. If you see the new development as a business opportunity, you might want to consider how to make your farm the ideal option for the neighboring horse lovers.
Ask not just about the next door property, but about all long-term plans and changes that may be in the works. Roads and improvements; location of commercial strips; type of housing. Almost every planning authority has a 5-7 year plan and a long-term plan for the area.
As an example, here are some things I learned about one of my properties by looking at the master maps, notes and documents (all online and free) from the planning authority: The road will be widened and take 20 feet off the front of my property; at some point in the future they will add sidewalks, and probably bike lanes as well; this road is not designated as the principal artery for the future, rather another road about a quarter mile away will have that honor. It is fully expected that new housing and commercial developments will be taking place in this area. This activity probably won’t take place in the next 3 years, but it is very likely to happen in the next 7 years.
Also, call the developer. Developers are human beings and they may well be glad to talk with you. They tend to be extremely busy, but if you can schedule a 5 or 10 minute conversation you may learn all kinds of useful things, and perhaps build a communications bridge as well. Keeping in mind that once the developer’s work is done, they are no longer involved in the property.
If you teach lessons and/or are a boarding barn, the new development could be great news for you. If you don’t, and if you don’t care for the new crowd moving in, maybe it’s time to see how much the value of your own property is increasing due to development. In that case, plan to at some point cash it out and use the proceeds to move to a place that is right for you.
Things change. More so now than perhaps ever before in history.
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Our area is rapidly growing and we are worried about experiencing something similar to that of the OP.
Re bolded- are there certain sites and/keywords that will allow me to get the information quickly? Thanks for any help.
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If it helps, while the first chunk of construction will likely be challenging for you and your horses, your horses might surprise you at how well they settle in. Adjusting to a large construction project is much easier than stopping spooking at random things. The noise becomes a constant. (Sorry!)
We share a fence line (think 30ft from our arena) with a mechanic garage. They are constantly doing things that should scare our horses, but even the cray cray jumpers could care less. It’s normal in their world. My horse used to jump out of her skin on our previous quiet farm, but I bathed her within 15 ft. of a jackhammer while we were putting in a new building.
Do protect yourself every way you can, but hopefully that’s one less thing to worry about.
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Regarding screening: Remember that sometimes hearing but not seeing is more spooky for a horse. Even worse can be just glimpses through shrubs.
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Leyland Cyprus grow FAST! We bought some at Costco 3 years ago and they’re already 11-13’ tall. My husband was diligent about watering them for the first summer and we fertilize them every year.
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Our farm backs up to a development. There are many horror stories but honestly we haven’t had any issues. It’s a good time to start desensitizing horses! I agree that an evergreen screen is a good idea. Talk to your extension office about what kinds will grow well and be healthy in your area. I have some lovely old trees that have some sort of scale that will impact them down the road and there’s nothing to do about it…sigh.
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I assume you are in a town or township… or very near one? The local governing authority should have a master plan…(if the authority is nearby their extraterritorial jurisdiction could very well be the governing authority) The master plan is the official guide of what the intentions of the town/city is to be doing, they just cannot go wandering off in new direction without impute
Also what will the infrastructure support? If sewers and water lines were install with the expectation of single family housing on multiple acre lots then it limits the developers options … the mandate of planning and zoning is safety of the people, that is how planning and zoning was first established, it was all based upon providing a save environment.
Every point you need to make before any committee is the concern of safety of all residentants, not that this development will be overlooking my property … if the water lines are less than six inch then they can not support fire hydrants with sufficient volume to fight a fire… the safety of the residents would be in question… and so.
Traffic counts on roads… if there hasn’t been one get one done… even if you have to do it yourself because documentation is the key rather than saying the traffic is already heavy and the roads will just be unsafe.
And worse case is talk with Audubon Society about setting up a bird sanctuary on you property… we did when the city started talking about running a new road through the northern border of our property… I was going to let the city fight with the Audubon Society, not me (city retaliated by changing the minimum lot size to one acre for a house in our zoning)
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it may work, depends upon zoning in place
A church I attended acquired a piece of land in a local high profile city… the church wanted to build a softball field; the adjoining homeowners went to war saying they didn’t move there to have ball field in their backyard… The zoning on the church’s land was agriculture.
So I suggested we give the residents a choice… ball field or livestock–pigs or chickens–… they choose ball field
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Absolutely attend zoning hearings. :yes:
Around here anyone within an X-mile radius gets a letter informing them when hearings take place.
Just go prepared to listen to some weirdass objections* & don’t provide them yourself 
*I went to a hearing for a multi-use trail that meant horses, bikers/hikers sharing the same paths but separated by a berm from each other.
It also meant purchasing some 20-50ft of right-of-way from landowners that bordered the path < a long-unused railway.
One of whom objected to the idea of “horses urinating” on his property if they strayed onto it. :rolleyes:
I was all in favor, since it would make trails available just a short ride from my farm, but it never passed.
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Definitely go to the hearings and get any concessions you can about screening, buffering and noise control!
The first horse property we ever owned (12 acres) was within a small town’s city limits. We visited the property on a few separate occasions before purchasing without noticing anything amiss. But after we moved in, we soon became aware of the low rent apartment complex which abutted the lower pasture/property line through a fairly thick screen of trees. You couldn’t even see the complex from the pasture, but boy could you hear it! The house was situated on the side of a hill overlooking a little creek valley where the pastures were. Picturesque but I think the valley contributed to the acoustics so that noises from the apartment complex were amplified and carried. The complex had 24hr music blaring from a robust Hispanic community which the local constabulary seemingly could do nothing to suppress. I’m sure I made quite a nuisance of myself calling about the noise pollution going on all hours of the night, which could be heard inside my house with the windows closed. Honestly, it made us miserable and I was never so happy to move on. Hope your situation turns out much better but be proactive.
I’m so sorry. I actually have nightmares about this happening near my farmette.
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