After I purchased my property in 2011, a neighbor mentioned that many years ago the county had come to visit him and said they were thinking about widening the road in front of our house. He had heard nothing since then and my property didn't have an easement in the deed, so I thought nothing more of it.
On Wednesday, the 6th, I received a letter in the mail the broke my heart.
I did some searching on the internet and found information about adding two lanes, a 16 foot wide median, and a 5 foot sidewalk on my side of the road. You see my side of the road is the country. Trees, houses that are at least 40 years old, and mostly older retired people. The other side of the street is a development that is a few years old, big houses with postage stamps for yards, a community pool, etc. I have a lot of trees between my house and the road, so I don't really see the community except for when the leaves fall off in the fall and winter.
Why would they be putting a sidewalk on my side of the street? Why can't they expand THAT way?
The next morning I called the number on my letter. Things got worse.
He told me that they were planning to take 50 feet from the front of my property line for the road, and then taking more than that for an access road and sidewalk. He made an appointment with me for Tuesday evening to come show me exactly what was going to be taken.
I was distraught.
I pulled up the image of my property and measured 50 feet from the front of my property line...
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| The mis-formed rectangle by the road is just the 50 feet section, they will be taking more. |
The picture isn't the greatest because you can't see the driveway as it pulls in front of the house, and then also up the side of the house to more parking areas. But you can already see the chunk that is being taken for some of the road widening.
I called the man back that evening. I hate to admit that I broke down on the phone with him asking if he could meet with me sooner. I pointed out that they are cutting down the only barrier that my animals and my family have from the traffic, noise, and neighboring community. I explained how I am a single mom and I worked hard to move my children to the country and that they are destroying my dream. I explained that my animals would no longer be safe with a road that close to our house.
He told me he would email me the plan that they had.
It looks even worse than what I had imagined.
Their construction crews will be cutting down EVERY tree in front of my house, including the 40+ year old Black Walnut trees.
Their crews will be 21 feet from my front door and 13 feed from our basement door during the entire project.
They are taking away two of my parking spots and half of my driveway.
They are eliminating all of our trees and privacy.
They are putting a dead end "turn around" on my property - where there is currently a stream.
There will now be a ditch right in front of my house and an "access" road that isn't necessary.
People try telling me that they will pay me for my land. But they aren't going to pay me for the complete loss in property value. They aren't going to pay me for the privacy that I purchased and they are taking away. They aren't going to pay to find a way to keep my animals safe. They aren't going to pay to replace the trees that have been here for over 40 years. They aren't going to pay to find a new place for my guests to park. They aren't going to pay to keep people from parking their old trailers and junked up cars in that "turn around".
I'm heart broken.
