Developer proposes moving horses' graves... TOPIC MORPH TO LAND CONSERVATION

[JSwan]

Farmers don’t have much of a choice when they’ve been planned and zoned out of business. It doesn’t matter what you want to do with your land or how much you want to preserve it. Once the big boxes have locked and loaded - you and your community are dead. Period. No going back.

Say goodbye to your local hardware store, dress shop, and decent quiet life, and say hello to “Made in China”, streets named after the farms that used to be there, McMansions, lattes and gridlock.

Welcome to the 21st century. Pop a pill, get a book on tape for the 3 hour commute, live on credit cards, have a starter marriage, your own therapist, and a Botox party. Hey - it’s the American way…

[Snowbird]

Opening Farewell you got the message. Exactly, and a herd of horses have big hearts and long memories. They might even haunt it if the bones get thrown in the landfill.

No Stegall it was off topic in that there are now starting to be some civil suits where people aare being deprived of their property rights which are protected by the Bill of Rights without due process means essentially without compensation. I happen to think that the Zoning Boards are too much governance. They are wrecking communities.

Here in New Jersey the former Governor in his haste to leave a legacy has preserved all of north New Jersey by a law from development. He then created development zones with 5 houses to the acres. He has used the state government to over ride all common sense. The horse farm has gone within 5 years from a pristine use of open space that pays taxes to a nasty poluter they want out of here.

Anyone from New Jersey please read the new Highland’s Act and see what it does to you and your property rights. Yes! he got away with it because everyone was too busy to notice until it was too late. People use “pretty words” but what they mean and do can be not so pretty.

By the way our most popular Horse Event in New Jersey is being forced out of existence. The new terms and conditions for building a cross country course are so extravagant that we may never see the Essex Trials again. Thank you for yet another gift to New Jersey USEF. And you’re supposed to be our Federation. This event has been the center of horse activites in this state for over 100 years.

[JSwan]

Hey - that is a great idea. I’m assuming that the disclosure to which you refer was among the closing papers when you bought the place? I wonder why Virginia doesn’t have that. We have a right to farm law too.

Hmmmm…methinks a letter is in order here. Do you have that disclosure and if so, can you copy and paste it here for us to take a gander at?

Me likee the COTH BB too.

[SimpsoMatt]

Hitch …

check out the Bluegrass Conservancy

With your new pro-development urban council, they’re going to need all the help they can get.

[caryledee]

Its so sad…Lexington was so pretty when I lived there. Soon it will look like any other city.

[mango1612]

I love developers and developments. That’s what paid for my riding, showing, horse care, vet bills, farrier bills, horse farm and on and on. And the same goes for many of my family members, too. This may go for some of you, too. My dad (one of those developers) enjoys and appreciates farmland and agriculture, he’ll often comment on how much he loves our horse farm, or going out to his land that he maintains and hunts in a nearby county. His goal in life is not necessarily to pave everything over, he wants to create good quality and attractive developments. So, believe it or not, developers are not money-grubbing men trying to take all your land, they’re trying to make a living, and wow, they might also appreciate farms and land, too.

I do agree it’s unfortunate that they are moving the graves to make way for a another big box type store, though. But as someone said, it was the farm owner’s decision, often times there’s a point where the price is right, and its more expensive to try and keep the land as farmland. i have a professor who is moving becuase the area where he lives is becoming so developed that developers offered him so much that he was able to buy two farms in a nearby county. Unfortunate he has to move, but he would be one of those people completely surrounded by development soon, and I don’t think he’d enjoy that as much as his two new cattle farms.

Sorry this was long, just my little vent about people jumping all over developers.

[AM1]

When I was in high school a long time ago, my family was interested in standardbred racing. Every fall we spent a weekend in Lexington to see the futurity at the Big Red Mile. My grandfather, a former history teacher, made it a point to find a different horse farm for us to visit each year. I remember going to visit Nancy Hanks grave more than once.

And after we saw the Pat Boone movie, April Love, and new it had been filmed in Lexington, we racked our brains trying to recognize the farm they had used. It wasn’t any we recognized. Then we visited Hamburg Place. My brothers and I were sure this had been the farm in the movie and grooms told us we were right.

[hitchinmygetalong]

You would be stunned at how little public outrage this seems to stir in this area. I think the folks around here have long ago given up on Hamburg. Money talks. Loudly.

Now, I would be REALLY interested in seeing what might happen should the powers-that-be over at Calumet decide it is time to slice-and-dice that primo piece of real estate up. After all, it sits right next to Keeneland. It is an “icon.” The white fences are a landmark. Still, it is privately owned.

On a positive note, there is an underswell of support for infill development - converting tobacco warehouses (long empty) to retail or apartments, that type of thing. Now, if only WalMart would open up a downtown store. That would definitely do the trick, wouldn’t it?

And I’m wondering, are those horses in coffins? What exactly would they be digging up? Or would they just be moving the markers? And I repeat everyone else’s question - where on earth do they think they are going to move them to? Outside of State Line Tack, right next to Barnes and Noble? In the median of one of the hopelessly poorly-planned roads?

[Galloway]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by poltroon:
Some small ideas:

1. Read the Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. It talks about the various pressures to build McMansions with More Square Feet … and we end up with houses that aren’t really liveable, with most of the space standing empty. Your library probably has a copy. Read it, digest it, evangelize it.
   <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I do already! That’s a great book, I dream of having a home like that.

[Caribbean_Soul]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>And I’m wondering, are those horses in coffins? What exactly would they be digging up? Or would they just be moving the markers? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Traditionally it is the head, the heart and the hooves that are buried. The container they are buried in is up to the owner. (I used to do the carriage tours at the KHP)

[Windsor]

J SWAN–

This issue has really lit a flame under my ass with regard to DOING something to stop sprawl in Virginia.

Would you be able to recommend two or three organizations (either state organizations or national organizations that would be able to do the most good in this state) for me to join? I just want my contribution to go as far as possible.

Thanks.

[maxiford812]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Magnolia:
I’m hoping sprawl will lose steam in my neck o’ the woods… <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Me too, Magnolia. The first time I drove down Matthews-Pineville Rd. after not having seen it since the early 70s, I literally got light-headed. No more countryside, no more farms, no more Meadowbrook Stables. It is truly amazing how built-up it is out there now.

[Giddy-up]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hitchinmygetalong:
And I’m wondering, are those horses in coffins? What exactly would they be digging up? Or would they just be moving the markers? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I wondered that too…especially horses buried in the early 1900’s. I understand the horse historical significance, but the developer IS the farm owner (if I am reading the article right) so I guess if he doesn’t care about his family’s horse cemetary, there isn’t much the “public” can do. I guess he feels people will enjoy the “graves” more by a sitting area/park setting rather than covered by asphalt in the middle of a parking lot (“here kids lies a famous racehorse right below our feet”).

Sprawl & development are huge issues by us. People want to blame the devloper, but let’s look at the farmer–he’s the one selling the land & laughing all the way to the bank. We call it “over night millionaire syndrome” & it’s fairly contagious once one farmer hears what the farmer down the road sold for.

[Snowbird]

It’s against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to deprive someone of their property rights without due process of law. Unless they have cancelled the Bil of Rights when I wasn’t watching.

Government is not the way to solve your problems it’s like using an atomic bomb to kill some ants. Remember if you can warp the law to get your way someone else get use it to get what they want.

Personally I’d start a nasty rumor that could turn into a Legend that there is a herd of red eyed horses in the sky that will haunt anyone who lives there. Ask the Real Estate Agents if they heard what happens when you disturb the graves of great horses. Since they don’t get to heaven they stay suspended between here and the hereafter.

[Smigget]

I HATE development with a passion. Especcially when it’s like this. People don’t seem to realize that once land is gone, it’s gone forever.

[Giddy-up]

stegall–no hard feelings. Like I have said before, different opinions is what makes the world go round…it just gets hard to remember that when it’s a topic near & dear to you. I have to remind myself too!

Another way to make a difference is remember when VOTING, know who you are voting for & their stance on development issues. Especially at the local levels.

[EventerAJ]

Oh please. Does Lexington really NEED another Walmart?!! I can think of 3 probably within 10 miles of Hamburg- one on New Circle, one on Richmond Rd, and one on Nicholasville Rd. I have generally given up on Hamburg though. If not Walmart, it will be something else.

However, I do have to say, for the most part the Bluegrass horse country is doing pretty well. My parents are involved in the home building industry outside of Chicago (dad’s an excavator, mom does streetlighting assignments). The outskirts of Chicago are going down like WILDFIRE. What was 100s of acres of farmland is now 1000s of houses.

The immediate Lexington urban area is getting crowded. But Versailles Rd is still mile after blessed mile of rolling fields and fences. I don’t imagine Calumet, Keeneland, Lane’s End, Adena Springs, or Ashford Stud selling out anytime soon. Also, UK owns a good bit of property for its Ag programs. They have developed some of it, but they won’t sell it all off.

[Magnolia]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>It starts at home. Teeny tiny things. You don’t have to go off-grid or wear Birkenstocks and stop shaving your legs.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, but you need to swear off of deodorant for a while…

[Magnolia]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Personally, I wish there was more of a push for revitalization and infill. In other words, find those properties in need of rebuilding and go to work. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

And developers can make a pretty penny off of those sites. Improving quality of life in our cities is a big key to land preservation. Sadly, certain urban residents are bigger NIMBY’s than rural residents… My favorites thumb their nose at CONDOS! Egad… only poor people have CONDOS… meanwhile, the proposed condos cost $650K and have granite counters and wood floors… but you know, it’s density and worse than a trailer home.

[Galloway]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jetjocky:

[QUOTE]I have personally seen, farmers who have been forced out for various reasons, and many of them WEPT when they gave up their farms. Having seen a 75 year old man howl in dispair made me ashamed that we as citizenss can let such thing happen to the people who feed and cloth us.[QUOTE]

As a culture, we should be ashamed of our insatiable hunger for cheaper gizmos and gadgets, McMansions and so forth. This is one of the many reasons that other nations fear, dislike and distrust us.

These tendencies away from a connection to the natural world are what ultimately has driven people who have fed and clothed us for generations off the land. As stegall, I believe it was, noted, you can’t just point the finger in any one direction, whether it’s the developer, the big-box retail chain, or what. The blame is in the culture that allows these things to blossom unchecked and largely unquestioned.

Also as we take farmland out of production, we begin to cede our method of food production over to who?? the Chinese, the Argentines? And if push ever comes to shove, do you think they will feed Americans first? (Sorry, getting off soapbox now; I know I’m a broken record.)

Let’s all make a resolution for the New Year, or even before, to support organizations dedicated to preserving farmland. Let’s join stegall and JSwan in the fight to protect the rural way of life. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You may be a broken record, but you’re playing the right song.

I’ll join in the fight. Just need to figure out which group…