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My husband and I have lived in my MIL's home since 1998, after she had a stroke. She has since passed away. The home is in an area that is zoned light commercial. Recently, we received a letter from the factory next door which said that they have gone to the city planning board. I did some research and this factory is planning on building an 800,000 sq ft warehouse on our property. They also have started marking trees that they plan on cutting down, including trees on our property.
This is really upsetting to me, but my husband doesn't seem to be worried about it. I'm not sure what, if anything we can do about this. Should we be worried? Is it time to move? Should we get a lawyer and fight it? Can anyone give me some advice?
get them to pay fair market value or higher for the house, who wants to leave next to a factory anyways? I would definitly not let them cut any of the trees on your property tho.
They're just trying to get you to the negotiating table. This could be your lucky day, developers often would rather over pay for a property like yours than go thru the hassle of trying to lawyer up and/or work the political system to eminnent domain you.
But yeah, if I were you I would not want to live next to a factory, I'd ask for a very very big check and jet the heck out of there. You may want to get someone to represent you in the negotiation though.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MaseMan
Chances are they'll be able to seize the house eventually through eminent domain. I would start negotiating now.
You're going to have to explain to me how a private entity can exercise eminent domain.
For the OP; I'm not sure how a factory can rezone your property without your participation. On the other hand, it sounds like you might be able to extract a nice price from them for your property.
Go get some surveyor's tape or something similar and some " No Trepassing signs" Mark your property boundaries with the tape and get the signs up. Keep the tree cutters off your land. If you see anyone touching your trees, call the police and file trespassing charges.
Who owns the house ? Figure that out. If you're the heirs and never had it put it in your names legally then do so.
Hire a lawyer and have them do the legal transfer to whoever owns the house. ( I hope it's you and not a bunch of family members).
Then have an appraisal done to establish a value on the house. I would suggest you plan on moving- a monster factory next door is not something you need. But you do want to get top price for your house.
They will offer next to nothing. Your appraisal will establish a value.
Let your attorney do the actual price haggling with the factory. Or if the town wants to take it via eminent domain, he can haggle with the town. Or if you have a strong backbone, you can negotiate yourself. But they'll make your life miserable - you need to be tough.
But do protect yourself- you can't sit there and wait to see what might happen. You've got to be proactive or you'll lose a bundle financially.
The factory could get the town to rezone the land . Then the town could possibly take it via eminent domain.
Famous case- Kelo versus New London- city could take land to give to developer bringing in much high taxes than single family home. Went all the way to the US Supreme Court which sided with the city.
Unless there is some strong state law to prevent this, could happen. OP in question needs to start lining up ducks in a row.
The OP hasn't actually said they own the house. If the MIL owned the house and they don't they could be in trouble.
MIL passed away in 2010. SIL has power of attorney and she keeps saying that everything is still in probate.
I really don't trust her because when I started researching the property, it looks like she had taken out a $50k mortgage, but that's another story.
I do believe in being proactive, especially when it comes to things like this. It's an old house, built in the 1960's, and my husband has put a lot of work into it. I would hate to see him not get anything out of it.
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They also have started marking trees that they plan on cutting down, including trees on our property. 
