Metal detectors doing their civic duty

[Dougie Webb]

Thought I'd share a happy story.

I've mentioned many times that I'm lucky enough to have almost 40 acres that abut my neighborhood. The land is owned by several individuals, but is unoccupied, and nobody minds me hunting. It is a beautiful natural habitat in the middle of an area that is just beginning to recover from suburban blight brought on by massive overdevelopment in the late 70's.

We recently learned of a developer's intent to buy most of the land from one individual and built a 200-unit apartment complex, which our area needs like a hole in the head, and which would ruin this habitat. Not to mention my hunting.

Last night, the development corp held an initial public hearing. One of the hurdles they have to clear is whether the area has historical significance. They felt confident in saying "no."

BUT my detector said otherwise. Because of the Ace 200 having found several primitive hand-forged nails on that property, I started doing some research and discovered that there was a mill on that site starting in about the mid 1800s, the ruins of which still stand to this day.

The development corp was pretty stunned, and hopefully, this will be one of many nails in the coffin of this project.

Short version: DIG EVERYTHING!

 

[Tony in SC]

Good job!! Get as many people as you can on your side, let you Rep and councilmen know what the voters think!! "Been there"

 

[Dougie Webb]

Good job!! Get as many people as you can on your side, let you Rep and councilmen know what the voters think!! "Been there"

Thanks, man! We are definitely going to give it our all

 

[Trezurehunter]

Good luck. I'd rather see the nature than the apartment building.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Not to rain on your parade - but a former mill site may not be "historically significant" enough. After all - a mill shows the site was developed for commercial use in the past. So, there's a precedent.

You have to have very compelling reasons to convince local gummint that the economic draw or relevance of the historic site is better than an increase in taxable potential for development.

 

[Dougie Webb]

Not to rain on your parade - but a former mill site may not be "historically significant" enough.

Shoot, I have a degree in drama and have worked in marketing for 20 years. I can sell anything!

But seriously, your point is well taken. It's actually the environmental sensitivity of the land that will likely be the fatal blow to the developer's plans.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Key word is "green-space". Modern developers sometimes have to provide trees and shade (and rain-water absorption) equal to what they plan to develop.