Yep. The owners of the property three houses down wanted to put in a quick market. The neighborhood went in force to the BOS meeting and spoke against it. It worked. My only advice is to try to get EVERYONE in your neighborhood to speak. I think that was the key to our success.

Do you not want THAT fast-food joint there because it'd make the area look dumpy? What if a bank wanted to knock the office building down and build its own building? I'm just wondering why, if it's busy there already, it's a problem. I would imagine that if the fast-food place wins approval, it opens the door wider to more of the same ...

Diagonally across from the entrance to my subdivision (single-family homes, condos and townhouses), there is a little one-story building that houses a computer/A.V. equipment repair business. A couple years ago, we heard that a development company bought that corner land and was going to build a multi-story office building. Hasn't happened yet -- the economy certainly stalled it -- but it's probably coming. There were some official complaints from our board members and regular residents, but I don't think they got far.

But there's also another plan for (I believe) single-family homes or townhouses on some acreage that a garden center, also across the street, sold off, and after there were complaints of increased traffic and noise, the garden center owner and the buyer of the land tried to assure us that it would "be a good neighbor" -- but there's nothing to hold anybody to that.

Me too, BTDT.

Had a big (for our town) proposed residential subdivision that shared a state-designated wetland with our farm. Local officials "in sympathy" with the developers; immediate neighbors too afraid to speak out for fear of p***sing off town or developers.

I went to all the meetings; presented maps and data; got people to come and speak against it; told town officials that if they didn't follow required state law in making the decision, I'd sue to reverse the decision and force them too. They didn't, and we did.

Cost us tons of money and eventually the developer agreed to go back and do the review properly (which cost him tons of money.) Enough changes were made that I felt the wetlands and the integrity of out town's review process were protected. Project was scaled down and went forward.

Was it worth it? After nearly two decades I guess I still think so, but at the time it was terrible: we had vandalism at the house; phone lines cut; cars damaged; tires slashed; and eventually some idiot sneaked up to our house while we were sleeping and poured gasoline on the ground and lit it. (Fortunately it was a wet fall night so nothing tragic happened.) And that's not mentioning the angry letters to the editor and my husband's employer; the steady barrage of hate mail; the time my car was forced off the road at night; the regular dumping of garbage and the endless destruction of our mail box. (We still don't get rural delivery 19 years later.) Some people in town continue to think we did a bad thing - but, of course, those people never really understood the point anyway.

It's been my observation that big, national developers are more likely to get turned down than local people. But often big national developers are buying property from local people so the influence on town officials may be just as strong.

Sometimes the best you can do is get an improvement in the plans, and correct review process. It's very difficult if you don't have near unanimity among the adjacent property owners.

Don't worry about the kind of travails we had. We happened to live in particularly lawless town, during a particularly corrupt period of its history. I doubt very much things would be the same today. And that's partly due to the fact that for once, somebody (us) actually stood up to the bullying. It destroyed the myth that you can't do anything about this particular entrenched developer, and that trying to do so would be dangerous.

L

Yes, one of my former neighbors organized a group of people in the neighborhood to oppose a Domino's pizza at the end of our street. The lady that spearheaded the petition lived right next door to the property. Her home faced my street and the proposed Domino's pizza property faced the busier street and the back of that property faced the side of her property. She went door to door, this was before facebook, and asked all of us to sign the petition. She sited that the delivery guys would be rushing up and down our local street posing a threat to all the children on our street. She also made everyone aware of the town meeting that was being held at which the owner of the property was asking for variances as well. You know, we won!! The owner of the building sold the property to a chef who opened a french bistro that has done wonders to the neighborhood and it is a very highly regarded resturaunt in the state. Sadly the lady had to move very soon after because her husband fell ill and they could not afford to live there anymore. I will always remember her and her efforts to keep our neighborhood "charming."

wow liriodendron, that's a terrible thing you went through. I am so sorry. Pammyfay, the problem with adding McD's to the proposed busy location is that it already IS so busy! Picture a small single story office building with no direct street access -- you reach it through a network of access lanes in the interior of a shopping center that was never meant to contain "Drive-Thru" anything. Everyone in town uses the dry cleaners, the supermarket, the Mom and Pop restaurants in this area. Parking's always a pain and its congested and dangerous enough. The proposed restaurant has attempted to "fit" it's restaurant into several configurations (it's a triangular property, even tricker) and can't seem to make it work, they're just cramming it in. Oh, and there are two big development projects about to break ground on adjacent properties. One is a 90,000 sq. foot assisted living facility and the other is a 60,000 square foot mixed used retail and office space project. We don't know the traffic impact of those and we're adding a primarily drive-thru fast food joint to the mix? What I've heard is that our Twp. needs to gather developer fees to cover the costs of running the town so it's a very developer friendly environment right now, a pay to play situation for builders...

Your complaints seem vague and are easy to combat by the entity involved or could even be used as counter arguments for them. If you want to successfully battle this you have to develop real problems with real figures (ie this joint shows a 30% increase in road side trash upon completition of a Drive thru etc). Or roadside injurys go up umpteen percent with residential areas within x feet of xyz restaurant....something concrete and real verses vague and emotional. Yes I've successfully stopped construction of two propsed projects with neighborhood groups, but only with concrete. I've also been on the other side and dashed away neighborhood emotional responses with hard data. You need more than you have now so if you are going forward and want a chance....it's time to do a lot more homework on the real negatives of the issue if you want to stop a land owner from using his property as he sees fit (within the law of course).

I've only once protested a development, but it went no where (I think I was the lone dissenter). BUT, my job requires me to review plans that impact wetlands & streams, and I'm currently reviewing a plan that will put in a road and sewer line thru a wetland. I've already put their feet to the fire and demanded a redo of the layout that would have filled the wetlands for building lots and they changed it, but still can't get thru my review. They need to justify WHY they're going to impact that wetland, and so far, can't do it. Another project my coworker is reviewing is a fast-food joint that wants to culvert a small (but signficant) stream, so they can add a drive thru. Again, it's not met with our standards, so they're having to come up with alternatives.

My point is, get a hold of the local planning department and find out what other regulatory agencies have input and get on their mailing lists. We are required to notify adjacent land owners, but not those in the area. However, our notice is available on the internet, if people know where to look.

I'm required to review every comment received and pass them on to the applicant to answer. In some cases, those comments cause the regulators to look at additional impacts and make changes, or even make the developers make changes...at least holds them more accountable.

In my area, there is a big box store that is headquartered in Arkansas trying to build in a community. There are few regulatory issues, but the community has fought tooth and nail to stop the development. They've won! So it's not impossible to win.

Suggestions include not getting emotional, but posing succinct questions. Cite possible traffic studies, impacts to public safety, NEED for this particular project. See what data they can provide for justifying adding another colorful box (I've seen that same clown outit have 3 stores within a mile!). Could the site be better served by a business that has fewer customers yet can provide the same tax base (# of employees, fewer concessions such as tax credits from the local jurisdiction). Ask about light and noise (hours of operation), especially since there will be an assisted living facility next door. So, really get specific in your challenges and be a bug in the ear. Regulators can only do so much in their acceptance of an application, but can go a lot further in the technical review...and this is where the public questions come in handy.

I've never done it but I've seen others stop proposed buildings from going up. The residents a few blocks away stopped a home depot from moving into their neighborhood by using the argument that semi's and all sizes of trucks would be driving down their streets to deliver goods to the store. I'm sure they had other arguments but it was the threat of these trucks that rallied neighbors on their side. It was a huge battle but they were relentless in spite of who they were up against, these companies have money, lawyers and influence. But in the end HD lost and the property was sold to Sutter Health and a medical complex is in that location now.

We have a city council that meets to discuss proposed changes to our town, if enough people show up to those meetings to express their objection to anything then that does a lot to sway council members who are always worrying how many people will vote against them in the next election if they don't do what the majority wants.

I applaud you for taking action rather than sit back and let others do it. I hope you are able to stop another McD from being built. The last thing the children in your neighborhood need is to have a McKrap close by. I wonder if it would help if all the residents in the vicinity wrote a letter to McD telling them they will not allow their family members to eat there?

I just googl'd anti mcd and all kinds of links popped up. I'd try to get in touch with people who know how to stop mcd's from coming into their neighborhoods, maybe they can help you prepare your anti-mcd campaign. Keep us posted on how it goes!

Here is a link that might be useful: Anti MCD

Does anyone know how to get the kind of information that igloochic is talking about? How can I find out how much more trash would be generated, how much more traffic would be generated, if the building isn't up yet? Do I find another fast food place in another shopping center near here and count cars? Unless I follow people around I can't estimate trash, so I don't know how that would work. Also, how can my arguements be used as counter arguements by the developer? I'm not sure I know what that means.

Do you think the lack of access to an arterial road and the triangular building lot may hold the key to this battle?

Today I walked around the neighborhood and collected signatures. I collected about 37 signatures, my personal goal is 500. People in other neighborhoods are also collecting signatures in their parts of town too. Some people wanted to get better informed before they signed but everyone talked to me. I'm a board member of my homeowners association (we represent 139 households with several voters in each one in many cases) so many people do know me, at least by name.

Ask your town planning and zoning staff to see the details of the application. The application should state the expected number of trips.

Has the jurisdiction done a traffic study recently of that intersection? Talk with your local official to express your concerns.

The Chicagoland Speedway wanted to build next to my brothers property which is about 8 mile from my property. Many people in this area protested. There were meetings and rallies. The speedway went to a neighboring county due to our areas protests. We were told how it was such a great benefit to us that we could move out of our homes and rent them to race fans during every event. Think of all the money we could make! Not.

Now if I can figure out how to stop the hotel that was built on adajacent land next to mine from having outdoor concerts. :(

Good luck to you Judith. It can be done!

suero, that is an excellent idea. I'll call tomorrow. That's the kind of nuts and bolts idea I can follow through on. I did a location search for all this brand's fast food restaurants in my county. Judging from their addresses, they're on very large roads with on/off street access, not inside shopping areas accessed by internal roads. I was thinking of going to each one and taking pix to show the supervisors (our town has a supervisor committee) so they could see how different our location is from other locations. FF restaurants like this one are a "one size fits all" solution. Maybe fine in a large rectangular lot on a highway, not so good in a mature area that does not conform to the big box concept.

Yes three times. Once they wanted to put high density housing on a parcile of land; someone wanted to open a child care business in their home and putting in a scenic road that ran behind the houses backed against the woods(would have brought tourism to the small town). Another time they put "gambling" on the ballot.

Everyone signed a petion in each case, brought it to city council and backed it up with facts. IE: trash trucks ruining the residental streets and the tax revenue generated not being enough to justify the cost of maintenance. The cost of a new road verses open space and habitat being preserved. All 3 projects were stopped. At that time we also had free legal advice from lawyers that lived in the area. They also presented the petitions and spoke at the city council meetings.

Just wanted to follow up w/my GW friends. The last week has been a whirlwind. Another neighbor and I attended two of our town meetings and spoke during public comment. Two local newspapers have covered our presentations. We started a Facebook Page about the unnamed fast food place (very respectful, facts oriented) and in just a few days have almost a hundred people following us, including some local and state politicians. We've also started petitioning and the response is really good. I'm exhausted and elated. The town leaders encouraged us to keep our momentum going and stay involved. So far, so good. Lot's of people who didn't know about this issue are coming forth and asking what they can do to get involved. It's really satisfying to know we're not the only ones out there opposed to the development that's proposed in this spot. Thanks to all of you for all your help. It got me thinking and got me started.

Years ago, an old, established, exclusive neighborhood around here fought the same corporate entity from building on a primary road at the edge of their neighborhood. This is an area with very influential people (Les Wexner of The Limited used to live here). They were ultimately unsuccessful but forced the coporation into altering their architecture. The restaurant eventually closed due to lack of business. Good luck in your fight.
Dee

Here is a link that might be useful: Fight