wall behind home

[joey_mcmarbles]

OP's concern is legitimate, imagine 100+ new neighbors right in your backyard, making noise, driving cars, smoking, etc. It WILL impact your quality of life in a big negative way and your property value WILL go way down.

In order to discourage development of your backyard you need to take a long-term plan. If your city has species of protected, "heritage trees" then plant several of them right along your backyard, and do what you can to encourage them to grow across the property line. Then if/when new development is proposed, rightly point out that it will kill those heritage trees, ruin your quality if life, etc, etc. If you can gather enough neighbors, then you might be able to convince the developer to buy you out at a premium, increase the setback of their proposed 10 story tenement, or maybe even abandon the project altogether.

Remember, it's YOUR city, and your backyard belongs to YOU, not to developers. YOU need to fight for it!

[homeowner3]

Hi,

Thank you for understanding. This is exactly my concern. I'm actively looking for nurseries for mature trees. If you any suggestions, kindly let me know.

Originally Posted by Wintermomma

I'm not sure I'd agree with that, but I guess it depends upon the demographic in his area. I am from "suburban sprawl," so would never buy a house backing a tall apartment building, I don't want people looking down in my yard or into my house. I would assume you cannot see a parking lot from your yard.

I would definitely start checking around some nurseries or tree farms to see what you can get growing there that won't damage your pool and block out the new building.

[homeowner3]

Thank you for your suggestion of 'heritage trees'. I will look into it.

Regarding the city, I don't think I can do much. They have already approved two tall building projects which are about 1/2 mile from our home. And there are homes right behind those new buildings. The owners of those home did protest against those projects but couldn't stop them. I'm just trying to prepare our home for that kind of situation in future.

Thank you

Originally Posted by joey_mcmarbles

OP's concern is legitimate, imagine 100+ new neighbors right in your backyard, making noise, driving cars, smoking, etc. It WILL impact your quality of life in a big negative way and your property value WILL go way down.

In order to discourage development of your backyard you need to take a long-term plan. If your city has species of protected, "heritage trees" then plant several of them right along your backyard, and do what you can to encourage them to grow across the property line. Then if/when new development is proposed, rightly point out that it will kill those heritage trees, ruin your quality if life, etc, etc. If you can gather enough neighbors, then you might be able to convince the developer to buy you out at a premium, increase the setback of their proposed 10 story tenement, or maybe even abandon the project altogether.

Remember, it's YOUR city, and your backyard belongs to YOU, not to developers. YOU need to fight for it!