Is this illegal?

[GSLeloo]

So by now everyone knows about the whole sidewalk thing with my town. Well a few weeks ago a reporter wanted to talk to my mom about what she thought since we had one of the "No Curbs and Sidewalks" signs.

My mom said to her they should make the streets one way and although it would be more difficult for us it would cut down the traffic. That was never mentioned in the paper. She also said (since my father keeps saying it) that the town only did it for the paper. That made it to the paper and the town denies it.

Finally she said "There isn't room for sidewalks because the side of the street the town wants to go down slopes down to the field and it wouldn't fit" The woman changed that to "The street is too narrow for a sidewalk". My mom said to her she wanted to be anonymous. So the woman writes 'as said by a resident living at the corner of Sunset and Dairy who wants to remain anonymous"

There are two houses at that location, ours with the "no curbs and sidewalks" sign and our neighbor who doesn't have any sign. Now my mom is pissed because she feels like the woman twisted her words around to make her sound like a psycho and that the woman betrayed her anonymity (sp?) by basically printing her address. The article was on the front page. Now this reporter claimed to be on neither side but the article shows she is definitely on the town side.

What I'm wondering is in twisting my mothers words and putting her address when she said she wanted to be anonymous, is that something illegal?

[Bobmuhthol]

Unless she was directly quoted, no, it's not illegal at all. The address.. probably not against any laws or rules, but certainly a stupid fucking thing to do.

[Skirmisher]

I don't know about illegal, but it surely sounds unethical.

[Trinitis]

Typical Reporter ploy. Thing is, they normally have lawyers on call that they can ask "Does this break any laws?" If no, they print.

[GSLeloo]

Well my mom is like super pissed and upset. She can't even look at the article right now. I was like 'Call them" but she said it's dumb to act when you're mad so she's waiting till tomorrow and will either call them or she'll write a response.

[Betheny]

It's a sidewalk, get over it.

Who the fuck is a sidewalk going to hurt? I DON'T KNOW IT MIGHT SAVE SOME PEOPLE FROM BEING HIT BY CARS. WHAT'S SO WRONG WITH THAT.

[GSLeloo]

Um well no one walks down the street, they all use their cars for one. Second of all, there is no traffic on this street because it's basically in the middle of nowhere. And because to make these sidewalks that no one will use, they're talking five feet out of everyone's property, chopping down tons and tons of trees (considering the street is basically covered in them) and it'll require moving fences which everyone is pretty sure the town won't be paying for.

Would you want them to take your land from you, chop down your trees, destroy your gardens and your fence and then have to pay for it, clean up the sidewalk, and be liable for it?

[Betheny]

You mean, be a participating member of a comunnity?

Maybe no one walks because there aren't any sidewalks and it's dangerous.

Walking > driving.

Besides, there's some federal law that mandates there have to be sidewalks on... well I don't know the requirements, but busier streets or places near schools or what have you.

It makes no sense to me to bitch about it, my mom has to pay for the electricity to run the two street lights on her property, and she also has to shovel her own driveway and mow her own lawn. Progress is GOOD, not BAD.

[Bobmuhthol]

<<Would you want them to take your land from you>>

It's not your land.

[GSLeloo]

Try they don't walk because that would be too much effort. Dangerous? No one drives on this street... they live about four houses from the tennis courts and they drive to the tennis courts. Why? Because walking would be too hard. There are other streets that have no sidewalks that, OH MY GOD, actually have traffic and people actually walk on it. Those are the streets they should bother with. No one does anything on these streets.

[Latrinsorm]

As someone who has also been poorly quoted by a member of the print media, I feel your pain and offer a suggestion:

Don't talk to those in the print media unless you're saying something like "Please call 911, my house is burning down". Even then, give them a meaningful look and brandish your fist as if to say "I will break your orbital if you fuck with me".

[GSLeloo]

We actually have made a decision. If they decide to go ahead with the sidewalks they can take our hedges, but they're paying for the removal. If they try and do a full five feet at our house they will hit foundation, our house, like many on this street, is raised and we have a wall about three feet high and up there is our yard. If they try to make us pay for that wall to be taken down, the ground to be leveled, the wall to be rebuilt, the fence to be moved back and then rebuilt, and all the hedges to be taken down.... then we are contacting a lawyer.


Edited to add this. The actual reason my mom was so upset about all of this was because it made her look bad the way the woman phrased the comment. Our neighbors granddaughter (lived in the neighboring town) was killed in a car accident last year, she was 7. So my mom was really upset because she thought the article made it sound like she didn't care about that. She went over and explained herself to them today.

[Edited on 8-5-2004 by GSLeloo]

[Latrinsorm]

Originally posted by GSLeloo
then we are contacting a lawyer.I hope he doesn't tell you the same thing I did (it's not your property), but I think he will.

[GSLeloo]

It's not about the property. It's about if they make us pay for moving everything.

[Betheny]

They made my mom pay for improvements to her street. It's called assessment. She had to pay twice, actually, because she lives on a corner.

It's just what happens when you live in an urban area, man. Comes with the territory. Not much you can do except sell your house and get an apartment.

[AnticorRifling]

God bless country living. 5 years from now I'm selling my house(I know I just built it) and I'm moving out of suburiba and buying 2-5 acres in the sticks.

[The Cat In The Hat]

Not going to happen.

Example.

My mom lives in an area that has well water and no sewer, it's right on the lake, quiet town, nice place to live actually. So the city decides "Hey! Lets go tear up the community and put in a sewer! The people living there won't mind, they've lived there 50 years without one and it never bothered them!" In comes the wrecking crew, the equipment litters the streets, most streets are impassible... and oh, by the way "You have to pay us $17,000.00 for this, reguardless of if you want it or not."

The city always wins.

Cat

[Jazuela]

Zoning laws vary from state to state and even city to city. When I lived in East Haven they had to straighten out a particular road that was causing trouble with flooding because of the curve.

The first 10 feet of a homeowner's property is considered an egress - meaning, the city has the right to do whatever they want with it, as long as there's a need. The homeowner is responsible for maintaining it, including costs.

If the city has to chop off a portion of that first 10 feet, they are required to pay fair market value for it, determined by the Assessor's Office. They can offer to pay more if they want to - and often they will because it reduces risk of court fees if the homeowner isn't happy about losing part of their front lawn.

If removal of property involves moving the structure of the house, the city has to pay for the move, either back further on the lot, or to a new lot.

But once the property has gone through its change, the homeowner becomes responsible once more for the maintenence of the *new* first 10 feet, even though the city maintains the right to use it as needed.

That means if there wasn't a sidewalk, but now there is, then the homeowner is legally responsible for the upkeep of that sidewalk and any damages to anyone falling on it and getting hurt.

The good news: Sidewalks raise the property value, so when it's time to move out, you have a much higher profit than before the sidewalk was put in.

If it was me, and someone offered to put a sidewalk on my front lawn free of charge and all I had to do was keep it in good condition, AND they would pay me for the 20x4' strip of land they needed to place the concrete, I'd JUMP to sign on the dotted line.

[Faent]

>>It makes no sense to me to bitch about it, my mom has to pay for the electricity to run the two street lights on her property, and she also has to shovel her own driveway and mow her own lawn. Progress is GOOD, not BAD. -Maimara

Well, Beth may be absorbing to much of that old home grown goodness that values city government and community participation... but this is what you get for choosing to live in a city or town.

>>My mom lives in an area that has well water and no sewer, it's right on the lake, quiet town, nice place to live actually. So the city decides "Hey! Lets go tear up the community and put in a sewer!

That's why you live in the *country*, not a *town*. You live somewhere that isn't going to be annexed for a *long* time, if ever.

-Scott

[peam]

If the government decides to build sidewalks, it's going to happen, even if some of the property being used belongs to your parents.

It's called Right of Imminent Domain. Which basically entitles the state to seize property, as long as fair compensation is provided. All going to court will likely do is raise the amount of compensation offered.

[GSLeloo]

If they pay for the property and pay to have the foundation and fence moved and the hedges removed then fine they can do it. But what we're hearing is they barely have enough funds and their plan is to do Sunset and then Dairy (along with many other streets) and that they'll run out of funds before they hit dairy. So how would they have the money to compensate us if they barely have the money to do it?

[peam]

If the city isn't going to have money to pay for things, which is doubtful, as building new sidewalks isn't top priority for a city with coffers running dry, I would fully recommend seeking legal assistance.

[Scott]

They don't have to compensate you to move to hedges and stuff. You move them, or they rip them out and throw them in a chipper. You can fight whatever you want, but the fact remains that you are getting a sidewalk, and it's going right through you hedges. Remove them yourself, or watch them go through the chipper.

[GSLeloo]

Um it would cost more to dig up those things and move them than anything else. My new question is this... say that take ten feet of your propety and make it into sidewalks. Is that now the first ten feet of your property or in thirty years or something can they say they can take the next ten feet?

[Jazuela]

Again - zoning laws vary from city to city, state to state, and in some cases, neighborhood to neighborhood.

Typically in Connecticut suburbs it's pretty standard stuff.

The first 10 feet of the property, beginning at the street curb and extending toward the lawn, is an egress.

You own it, but you forfeit the right to do anything with it if the city needs it for something else.

They -can- take the hedges, because you chose to allow them to grow on an egress. They chose to allow you to do this, and now they're telling you they need THEIR right of egress back to make improvements to the area near the streetline.

The utility companies also maintain this right. They can stick a telephone pole 10 feet to the side of your mailbox if they determine it's needed there...they can dig trenches to place sewer pipes if they need to...they can destroy that first 10 feet trying to get a payloader close enough to construction on the road if they want to.

If they aren't widening the road, then your property line doesn't change at all. It's the same 10 feet of property from the curb, and it is still your property, and you are still responsible for its maintenence. The only difference now, is that the first 10 feet now has a sidewalk running along it, and you are -also- now responsible for anyone who gets hurt falling on the concrete. The end result is around 20 bucks extra on your homeowner's insurance policy every quarter. You also have to keep the sidewalk in useable condition, shovel it when it snows, not fence it in, etc. etc. etc.

In return, you get a beautiful new sidewalk and an increase in your property value if you choose to sell.

I'd love to have a sidewalk on my front lawn. But I'm not gonna pay to have one installed when I can just wait for the city to some day decide it needs to be done and let them pay for it...AND pay me the fair market value of the property they need to install it, for my inconvenience.

So for now - no sidewalk on my front lawn. I can live without it, as much as I like the idea of having one.