New Road

[TMIL]

I'm guessing your only shot would be to get to any public input meetings on the subject. If they are making 2 different options public, I would assume they are looking for public comment on the matter? Get your neighbors together and get your ducks in a row. "We don't want it here because we don't want it here" will not get you anywhere.

As a surveyor, I've seen lots of unhappy landowners. I've been yelled at by them while doing initial surveys for a new road they didn't want. Its not like I decided the road was going there! One case in particular sticks out in my mind. There was a couple that had purchased a house and an acre or two out of a larger tract from the heirs of a pretty secluded property. A couple years later, the heirs decided to go ahead and break up the rest of the property and sell them off for more houses. That couple called me up, asking what they could do to stop it. "We bought out here because it is secluded." I didn't know what to tell them. They were very nice to me, so I stopped short of saying, "If you want control over 80 acres, you gotta buy 80 acres." But that's what I was thinking.

 

[Jim Timber]

That's my point Tmil - there's been several of them so far, and I'm curious just how many have attended them. The guy who's most feverishly bitching about my swamp road right now is president of the lake association and used to have a quote about "the world belonging to those who show up" attached to all his emails - he wasn't at any of the meetings about my project. ;) And now he's bitching past-tense because he didn't get his little voice heard loud enough and was out of state when the requisite meetings were held. He's yet to figure out no one cares.

As much as it might pain you, through the woods is the path of least resistance for a road project. Without having to replace everyone's driveways (the parts they chop up), and move or deal with existing sewer systems, gutters, gas lines, etc; starting fresh is cheaper than demolition to then rebuild. The tranquility of your parcels is not a financial consideration to the city council. You also have the issue of residential traffic to deal with when converting a 2 lane into a 4 and safety of pedestrians, sidewalks, etc. The road that avoids all those houses is deemed safer.

 

[Jim Timber]

I hope to never live to see my woods end up annexed as Brainerd proper. If that were to happen, I'd move. I want to live in the country. I want to do country things like pissing off my deck and shooting guns whenever I feel like it. The county has declared they want to retain the current rural "feel" of the area and have banned subdivisions smaller than 2.5 acres.

IGH is being run with a different agenda - they want bigger roads to funnel business to their malls and shopping corridors. I don't even think a conservation easement would prevent a governmental unit from bulldozing right through it. They're not subject to replacement requirements for the WCA, so I doubt there's anything that you can do short of finding out it was an Indian burial site to make them not pursue it at this point. They've had the meetings. You might be able to sue them for a change in property value after the road was built, but that again is very difficult to win.

 

[bueller]

Sounds like its time to move if you don't want to live with this change. However if you do decide to stay I'd wager your property value will increase rather than decrease. Roads bring development, development brings money.