Community Chat

[sophiesofers]

@Spurt    Your kitty avatar is very cute. Is that your cat?  

[Spurt]

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@sophiesofers wrote:

@Spurt    Your kitty avatar is very cute. Is that your cat?  

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@sophiesofers 

Thanks, she's a cutie....thats one of my two Tuxedo cats, her name is Puddy Cat....  she is such a sweet kitty too...

[sophiesofers]

@Spurt     Awww,  Puddy Cat is beautiful!  I have 2 cats, both tabbys, Sophie and Gianna.  My other cat Lily went to Rainbow Bridge a few weeks ago. Hugs to your kitties! 

[MamaWick]

@Spurt  I live in a rural area of Texas Hill Country.  Over development is here, and unfortunately, PapaWick and I are part of it. 

[Spurt]

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@MamaWick wrote:

@Spurt  I live in a rural area of Texas Hill Country.  Over development is here, and unfortunately, PapaWick and I are part of it. 

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@MamaWick 

Our last hope ...😥.. I think more and more people are moving to the Hill Country and help to create this problem too....

[Y2Worry]

It's not only woodland that's being taken over for building lots.  I live in a county that has many beautiful family farms. These farms are being sold off for building lots as the owners age and do not have children who are interested in farming. 

I don't blame the families for selling their land, but it will at some point create a food production problem.  We are a short-sighted population.

[MamaWick]

@Spurt  It's sort of funny how we ended up in this place.  We put a contract on our house without having seen it in person.  We decided to retire here since our eldest lives in SA (the other child lives in Maine).  Anyway our son and real estate agent found this place, sent pictures, and we bought.  The first time we set foot in the house was the day we closed.  The house was perfect.  We are "city folks" and rural living is new to us (along with septic systems).  We have learned so much, but are also sorry to be part of the problem.  We love Texas!

[Spurt]

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@MamaWick wrote:

@Spurt  It's sort of funny how we ended up in this place.  We put a contract on our house without having seen it in person.  We decided to retire here since our eldest lives in SA (the other child lives in Maine).  Anyway our son and real estate agent found this place, sent pictures, and we bought.  The first time we set foot in the house was the day we closed.  The house was perfect.  We are "city folks" and rural living is new to us (along with septic systems).  We have learned so much, but are also sorry to be part of the problem.  We love Texas!

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@MamaWick 

WOW!!! Everything worked out so perfectly...that place was meant to be for you!  The Texas Hill Country is my favorite part of Texas....me and my friends visit often.  I love the countryside and quaint and charming towns and unique shops....

[Mominohio]

I understand both sides of this issue.

I live rural, I love it, and I hate when the farms get cut up (the Amish are the worst for doing that). I've seen so much land around us get developed, and I don't like it.

But....

You can't tell people what to do with land they buy. 

I feel the answer is if you want lots of undeveloped area around you, you need to be prepared to buy the land and protect it. 

For us, we tried, but couldn't get lots of it around us as the Amish made sure not to sell to English. And most people can't afford to buy all the land they would like to have around them or preserve from development.

I see it all the time, people who have farmed or had land in their family for generations, but can no longer keep it or choose to take the huge amounts of money to be made by cutting it up or selling off to developers rather than take less to keep it whole with a single buyer who will leave it intact. It's something most people who complain about development would do if they had the offer. 

I've always felt that the answer to less development is to clean up the urban areas we already developed and make them attractive to people to live in, instead of people always looking to get out and create more living spaces. That is happening in some cities, but unfortunately it isn't going to stop development. 

And when you do get areas that develop with regulation and HOA type governing, to keep areas from over developing and preserve space, people either don't want the restrictions, or it is expensive and only affordable to those with high incomes. 

[MamaWick]

We've tried to buy the lot on one side but they are planning to build and retire.  The 2 lots on the other side are definitely green space.