Henrico Property Owner's Coalition

Originally, this was my attempt to get the residents of the neighborhood to work together to solve the problems created by this land behind our houses. Now, it's a place to document the events that led to this point, and the disasters that have resulted from not speaking up.

Updates:

I recently learned that the entire "wetlands designation" claim was a falsehood, or at best a misrepresentation. Henrico Environmental Department people, Kellog and Weddel, repeatedly referred to the wetlands designation in many emails and conversations with me. My mistake was believing they were being honest on some minimal level. There never was an actual county wetlands declaration, in any real sense, since any such designation would have to have well-defined boundaries, and none were ever defined. This despite many, many references to "the land" and the "wetlands designation" including threats to include my property in that designation, and to prosecute me for doing anything about the six inches of water flooding my backyard and my crawl space.

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The federal wetlands designation that followed turned out to be yet another falsehood. Molnar of the Army Corps told me there never was an "official" federal designation. Apparently, the references to such a designation from Weddel were another misrepresentation.

What is the reason for all this? I can only guess, but I think it is mainly because the residents of the neighboring homes ignored the issue, and left me standing there alone. That gave the county the opportunity to treat me as an irrelevant single player, and enabled them to lie to me repeatedly regarding the status of the land. Had more people been involved, they would have been less likely to be so bold in their misleading statements.

But why? It is possible that they may have been protecting the landowners from my pending legal actions due to the flooding. I know how much Henrico loves rich people and especially developers. Maybe it was just to justify the existence of their environmental department. Who knows? I will turn up the heat and see what boils off.

And finally, we come to the consequences of apathy and falsehoods. The land is up for sale as a "development opportunity." Yes, the greatly protected "wetlands" is soon to be some ghetto apartment complex or a new row of houses jammed up into your back yards. Have you noticed the signs? Crazy "video surveillance" signs, and "no trespassing" signs, as if someone has been on their land. Weddel and the county are the troublemakers, not me or the people of this neighborhood. It's rude, insulting and unsightly.

Thanks to the land being stripped while their false wetlands designation failed to protect it, for the first time since my family bought this house in 1986, there is a clear and unobstructed view of the backyards of the houses on the other side. Before, it was natural woods, and not entirely unattractive. Now, at least one owner has put up a new fence, and I am planning one very soon, to block the view of this disaster. This new expense is in addition to multiple drainage fields, outdoor sump pump, underground piping, electrical installations, and landscaping to make it all look good enough to not destroy my property value. The total bill is about $20,000 so far. Before they started stripping the land, it was half that. That's when the land owners refused to do anything about the mess they had created. Selling the land will not change anything. First, it is unlikely anyone would buy it, and no sane real estate broker or agent would try to sell land under false pretenses, and given the flooding and the pending law suits.