My husband and I are adjacent property owners to 40 acres of land
zoned as "open space" for "public use". This land is mostly a wooded
floodplain for a National Scenic River. (THE main reason we bought
this home was to be near this particular river). Also, this land is
still owned by the original developers. We're having multiple issues
with activities going on down there. ATVs and dirt bikes are down
there daily, close enough to our home so that if we are in our back
room with the windows open we cannot carry on a normal conversation.
On the heavy trafic days (weekends) the 2-cycle fumes drift into our
home. There is also the issue of serious destruction to the floodplain
and other environmental issues specific to the area's sensitivities.
When we are walking on a path they actually speed up to pass. We've
also witnessed underage drinking, smoking, illicit drug use and
hunting. (No prostitution YET). I've also been threatened once by a
group of boys. Basically
it's a lawless, un-policed, unregulated area and the word seems to be
spreading throughout the area because the abuse is increasing rapidly.
We've called the sheriff's office a few times and the
deputies who came were helpful and willing to do something, but the
kids on dirtbikes easily elude the cops on foot. When we see kids down
there doing this crap, they won't be there by the time the cops come.

It's Lord of the Flies plus.

The local metro park system director has even called the owner and
offered the services of the park rangers, to patrol and such. The land
owner refused.

The easiest answer to this might be to not go down there, but like I
said it's the number one reason we moved here. It's painful to see
this area we love get so abused, so I there's no way I can sit around
and watch much longer.

What should I do? I'm prepared to write letters, emails and make phone
calls, but I've never been in this situation before so I don't know
where to begin. Any advice would be MOST appreciated. Thanks in
advance.

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 11 Sep 2005 18:03 PDT

xjuniperx...

Have you considered having a local TV station do a documentary
expose of the situation? There's usually an "on your side" TV
channel that is willing to investigate these things and publicize
them, which puts pressure on the landowners to at least comply
with the offers of the park rangers to police for crime.

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by xjuniperx-ga on 11 Sep 2005 18:35 PDT

sublime1

That's a pretty good idea actually. It hadn't occurred to me that that
would have the intrigue the local TV stations like, but definitely
worth a try.

Thanks

xjuniperx

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Request for Question Clarification by nenna-ga on 21 Sep 2005 08:01 PDT

Coudl you tell us the county and state you are in?

Nenna-GA

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Clarification of Question by xjuniperx-ga on 26 Sep 2005 11:28 PDT

Hello nenna-ga,

I apologize for my delay in replying. I live in Franklin County, Ohio.

xjuniperx

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 26 Sep 2005 15:23 PDT

xjuniperx...

It seems to me that, short of local media coverage, it would
be to your advantage to at least document, on your own, as
much as possible. If that just means keeping a written journal
of what you observe transpiring, even that would help. If
there's any way to capture video documentation, that would
be even better, but, obviously, you'd need to do so in an
unobtrusive manner, to avoid retaliation by the interlopers.

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by xjuniperx-ga on 26 Sep 2005 16:19 PDT

Thanks sublime1, this is a good idea. I can imagine that I would be
taken more seriously with documentation. It wouldn't be difficult to
record much of the ATV activity from my own back yard and there are
currently piles of beer cans I should photograph. I have noticed the
ATV activity is on a loose schedule, but I could be writing this down.

I happen to be an absentee owner of a property that had similar problems.
Besides getting a letter from the county health (?) department to
remove waste left on the property, which I did, I discovered that
someone had buried planks with nails several places in the bike
trails.   The chaps from PG&E learned about them the hard way, but
they had no justification to be in that area.

Besides the local media - which usually need material -  since the
metro park director has been willing to help, there are probably state
and county ordinances that are being breached, and the law enforcement
agencies are obligated to pursue the matter.  Any marijuana plants?* 
Any girls screaming "rape"?  Well, maybe it only sounded like "rape",
could have been "help"?.

Yes, stir up the community influence.

*If you are in Cal. (maybe elsewhere), the landowner is has the
problem when pot is found growing on his land.

Good luck, Myoarin

I sent an e-mail concerning your problem and got this reply:

If you want suggestions about your local floodplain uses, you should
contact your state floodplain manager (go to 
http://www.floods.org/StatePOCs/map.asp to locate your state's NFIP
State Coordinator).  Otherwise, I would suggest that you keep
informing the local authorities until they get around to doing
something -- sheriff, town officials, county administrator.  If they
get enough phone calls from you and your neighbors maybe they'll work
harder at catching them.  Sorry I don't have more advice for you --
perhaps your NFIP State Coordinator will have more suggestions for
you.
 
Debbie Pond
Association of State Floodplain Managers
2809 Fish Hatchery Road
Madison, WI  53713
608-274-0123 Fax: -0696
asfpm@floods.org

As with any legal situation see an attorney.  What you have is a
nuisance on that property that interferes with your enjoyment of your
property.  An attorney can file a lawsuit to force the property owner
to abate the nuisances he is allowing on his property.

I wish I knew if there was a way to reply directly to individual
comments. I appreciate everyone who has responded so far.

Thanks for your input and perspective myoarin. As of now we haven't
found any marijuana plants or heard of anyone actually being attacked.

This is an entity I hadn't heard of, redhoss! I think they would
certainly be interested. I checked the link you provided and found the
contact for my state. Right now I'm gathering contacts of parties who
may be interested and plan on writing to each.

I feel you, daniel2d. As of now I want to gather information and feel
out the situation, find out my rights and who is interested enough to
pursue this with me and proceed in a diplomatic fashion. That may be
to "nice" to be effective, but I'll find out. An attorney is a last
resort, but it's certainly an option.

As of now I've begun an email correspondence with my Township
Administrator. He has been very responsive and is showing interest in
helping and right now helping means gathering information. It's a
start. In a way it seems the worse the situation gets the more it may
benefit us.

I'm still open to any suggestions anyone may have.

I have to agree with Daniel2d-ga that this sounds like a situation
where you should sue the landowner for harboring a nuisance and
interfering with your quiet enjoyment. By sending written notice of
each incident by certified mail-- and I mean sending one, two, three,
ten letters per day-- you will create a paper trail that courts love.
Pictures of the annoyances are good, video with sound is better. but
for goodness sake, don't put yourself in a dangerous position with the
lawbreakers.

Get an attorney. I do not think you could sue in small claims for each
breach, but that might be something to look into, and an attorney
could answer that.

Why are you angry at that land owner? You can't tell him how to manage
his land.  It is that simple. If you don't like what he is doing, then
move away. I am really sorry that your dream home is "ruined" by some
dirt bikes, but trying to control something you have no control over
will only make you look like a fool, not to mention the reprisals that
would come if you were to "expose" them. You thought they were bad
before, wait until they are actually -MAD- at you. The bottom line is,
it may be annoying, but it doesn't belong to you. If the landowner
doesn't mind then what can you do. If you catch one, what do you
charge him with - being "too loud"? Your best bet is to move away, to
some other house on some other part of that river. Or you could just
deal with it like everyone else living there. Maybe if you made
friends with them you could convince them to ride a bit further away.
Bitterness and resentment do not forward progress make. It's already
hard enough to find places to ride in Ohio for people who enjoy
riding, so don't make it any harder. I am rider myself. I ride a 2
stroke  (!!!) and I don't ride anywhere I am not welcome. If I saw you
coming at me for riding on land that doesn't belong to you, who is
being invasive? The rider or you? If you approached me with your best
foot forward I would listen to your considerations. Kids like "cool"
people, try to identify with them, seem like you are on their side.
Kids HATE whiney old people. When I see an angry lady coming at me
(when I didn't even do anything to her) I want to kick her in the
face. Empathy is key, be a friend, and ask a favor as a friend. If you
try to force them to stop, you WILL -mark my words- get stomped on.
You WILL get vandalized, and they WILL purposely piss you off, the
bigger the reaction the better.

Tyler Smith