New Road

[Brush Creek]

My home is in a quiet neighborhood in the SW corner of Inver Grove Heights MN. All of us neighbors have 5.5 acres mostly wooded and it is a gem of an area to live in. To the east and south there is a large contiguous piece of woods owned by Flint Hills Refinery. It is one of the last large forest areas around. You hardly can tell you are in the metro area. It is very quiet and peaceful. Even the airplanes fly around us for the most part.

Well, Dakota County seems to think they need a major road through the area to get people home 1 minute sooner every night. They have come down to two options for this major road. Both suck and will make the neighborhood much less enjoyable. One option turns a dirt road into a 4 lane paved road. This is 100 yards from my home. The second option is to put the road 500 yards to the east. This road would cut right through the large forest and within 150 yards of neighbors homes.

The kicker is that there is a major road the west 1.5 miles and a major road to the east 1.0 miles, but for some reason they don't want to make that road bigger. They could also go 700 yards to the east of my home and avoid most of the big woods but they don't show that as an option.

Anyone have any experience in this type of thing? How can we fight this? Is there a conservation group that would help out, like the Sierra club or anything like that?

 

[shawnv]

A similar situation happened to me and it was for a major hwy bypass. It can be delayed but there is little you can do to stop it if building the road supports "progress". Every time I drive the bypass now I look at me old urban stand locations and remember all the trees still standing.

On the flip side, this bypass save an incredible amount of time heading North and I now live in a different area.

 

[Native Hunter]

Find a Grey Bat, Indiana Bat, Snail Darter, Red Cockaded Woodpecker or some other endangered creature and you can stop anything. It doesn't matter how it affects humans. You can never stop anything on that basis. Seriously, you best shot is environmentalists. Would be nice if you could get some independent ones interested in it instead of the ones that have been bought out and hired by the government.

 

[BJE80]

I would start by asking them if they have done a traffic study to justify this new road is needed and the benefits it will provide to the community. Make them count cars and prove it is needed.

 

[tooln]

Like NH says find something otherwise your SOL.

 

[TMIL]

100 yards from your home? Who owns the land where the road is proposed? If its already county property or if the refinery will sell to them, I don't see there is much you can do. Even if they need your land, they might be able to take it by imminent domain, of course that would go to court. Roads are built every day where people don't want them.

Its pretty tough for individuals to restrict land they do not own where there are no existing covenants in place. I fear you also won't get free help unless you find one of those endangered bats or turtles. If you are serious about fighting it, you probably have to find a lawyer willing to take it on. I'd hate to imagine what that would cost, though.

 

[West Branch]

That is too bad to hear, when we came to pick up those stands from you I was thinking about how nice of an area you had there so close to the metro.

It seems like a road like that would be tough to fight. Probably have to round up a few neighbors and somebody from a Organization that is willing to put some time and resources into it.

 

[Daydreamer]

Sounds similar to something that the city of Dayton is trying to do that affects a piece of land that I have permission to hunt. I know they had an association and I believe were trying to use something in the bi-laws of the association to fight it. I haven't inquired in a while as to where it stands so I probably should.
Not sure if your neighborhood has an association or not. Bummer either way. In Dayton they had a road blowing through about 25 yards from their brand new swimming pool.
I think I remember your old moniker on HSO that went something like "5.6 acres but hunts like 10" or something like that...sad to hear you're having deal with this.

 

[wiscwhip]

Find a reptile or amphibian, those are usually the hardest ones for developers to fight. Their habitat is usually a very small portion of the landscape and also one of the hardest to recreate/remediate.;) I was pretty sure a while back you mentioned possibly seeing a massasauga rattlesnake or a box turtle or was it a Blanding's turtle?o_O:D

 

[Jim Timber]

You guys sound like my neighbors up North.

 

[sandbur]

Could that area have been selected because there are less people to complain about the location?

 

[SD51555]

Find a Grey Bat, Indiana Bat, Snail Darter, Red Cockaded Woodpecker or some other endangered creature and you can stop anything. It doesn't matter how it affects humans. You can never stop anything on that basis. Seriously, you best shot is environmentalists. Would be nice if you could get some independent ones interested in it instead of the ones that have been bought out and hired by the government.

You beat me to it. That's exactly what I'd do. Allege they're all in there. Make 'em prove there not.

 

[wiscwhip]

You beat me to it. That's exactly what I'd do. Allege they're all in there. Make 'em prove there not.

Agree, get enough folks nosing around in there and who knows what they will find. Your other alternative is to see if that ground has any Native American significance. That puts the brakes on those projects as well.

 

[Brush Creek]

Thanks guys. To clarify, there is a dirt road to my west 100 yards ond one option is to make that the major pass through. The other option is 500 yards to the east, 150 yards from two neighbors and through a large woods. Two stupid options.

 

[TMIL]

So who owns the property? Does the county own enough right of way for a major 4-lane where the dirt road is now? What about the other option?

 

[Jim Timber]

I'm guessing the road is the least of your problems. You might be told it's to shorten commutes or reduce the traffic volume on the other roads, but I'd be sniffing for a developer's plans.

When I lived in IGH back in 1996, there was hardly anything there - farms all around until you got up to West St Paul. Going down there now is a totally different experience. Urban sprawl is claiming it and there's nothing you can do to stop that if you don't own the land.

Claiming there's some endangered species to hinder their progress is chicken shit and unethical. You have no say over what anyone else does with their property - that's the price of freedom. If you don't want it developed, then buy it!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Now - now - now fellas. You're starting down the " little guy getting run over by the BIG GUYS " road. Can't be victimized and open your mouth in this country anymore. It's not nice and it's " NOT GOOD FOR THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY ". Imminent domain is perfectly O.K. if you have lots of money and the right " connections. "

 

[Jim Timber]

I just had 13 people "try" stopping me from putting in 5,000 square feet of fill on my own lot so I could access the majority of my property. It's not about big guy vs little guy, it's about property owners rights. I'm not doing anything that concerns them, and I'm not using public money to do it either. Had they been smart enough, I'm sure they would've come up with some endangered lizard having been seen in my swamp to try to prevent my project.

They actually wanted me to use Eminent Domain to gain access to a different road. I refused for a couple reasons; first, I don't agree with the practice, and second, I had no claim to do so - because I bought legal access to my high ground prior to ever buying the land-locked parcel.

The road project in this thread has been in the 5 year plan for some time. How many meetings have you attended? I had ONE person show up to the only hearing I had with the township about it. There were 2 meetings about the IGH project in February alone - and several before that from the looks of things. It's spelled out on the website.

If you own the land the road is going through, you can be upset if they're taking it from you under duress. That's not what I'm reading here. This is a neighbor getting butt-hurt over a road going in by his property (just like my neighbors complaints). Buy it if you don't want it developed.

 

[Brush Creek]

They will have to take land with either option. The dirt road option would take the least amount of land but go by very close to many houses. The other option they would have to take a lot of land from several land owners including a business and from the refinery. So no, I don't own any of the land where a road would go. I get progress but there is an existing road to the east that they could improve and go by one or two homes. Or they could go another 100 yards to the east of the proposed east road and miss about a mile of woods. I don't know why they would want to go right through the middle of a large woods and right next to about 4 or 5 homes that right now are in the middle of nowhere.

 

[wiscwhip]

Oh yes, rest assured that many highly edumacated individuals have spent way to many taxpayer dollars mulling over the proposed routes already.:rolleyes: