Pushy Developers Tried To Pressure A Man Into Selling His Land, So He Put A Pig Farm On The Property To Shut Them Up For Good
by Matthew Gilligan
This is the good stuff, baby!
I love reading Reddit stories about “the little guy” standing up for himself and sticking it to The Man.
Are you ready for a story that’s bound to put a big smile on your face?
Let’s get started!
Local hero sticks it to city hall.
“This happened quite a few years ago.
Where my hometown is, is a thing called ALR, Agriculture Land Reserve.
Basically, there are areas of land that can only ever be used for agriculture, in order to protect prime agriculture land from becoming highways and strip malls and things like that.
A friend of a friend (let’s call him Fred) had inherited a piece of such land on the outskirts of the city.
He had no interest in doing any kind of farming, but the ALR rules allow for the property owner to have a personal residence on the land, so he built a house on it and had a nice place to live just outside of town.
Now, city hall has ways of acquiring ALR land and using it for non-agriculture purposes…
i’m not familiar with how exactly, but they can, and it is about impossible for anybody else to.
There was a problem…
One thing the city would do is acquire ALR land and turn it into condo developments.
They had a vision for three high-end condos to be built where Fred’s property was.
They had already bought the properties on either side of Fred’s land, and were going after his too.
The city was only offering Fred the property value, and since he just built a house there, he would be losing on the deal so Fred said no.
While the condos on either side of Fred were being constructed, the city used every tool they could to try and expropriate Fred’s land, but the ALR restrictions made it tricky.
Finally, they told Fred that since his land was ALR, he needed to be using it for agriculture within 30 days, or they could take it from him.
If you say so!
Fred’s response? PIG FARM!
He crammed as many pigs onto his property that he legally could…full compliance with farming regulations, health and safety…whole nine yards.
Since he had fulfilled his obligations with the ALR, the city could not touch him. Period.
The city had already pre-sold a number of these condos and naturally, none of the buyers were very happy to have spent a small fortune to live next to a big stinky pig farm.
Most of the buyers obtained grounds for dismissal on their purchase agreements, while the rest filed a big lawsuit. The city’s project was sinking fast.
Money, money, money!
The city started negotiating with Fred, and the story ends with The city finally making Fred an offer for his land that was so ridiculous, he had no choice but to accept.
The city finished their condo project, but thanks to Fred they did not make nearly as much off of it as they had anticipated.”
Here’s what Reddit users had to say.
This person has an idea…
Another reader was impressed.
This Reddit user spoke up.
Another reader chimed in.
And this person was impressed.
This was some epic revenge!
Way to think out of the box.
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
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