[HurkinMcGurkin]

A pre-emptive suggestion to you folks out there....Attend every single zoning hearing in your community. This stuff can be spotted in the bud before problems show up on the branch.

Yep, but that's just "too much trouble" for some people.

When was this woman's land zoned commercial? Retail Commercial? Mixed Use? Was her land zoned that way when she bought it? If so, she's an idiot.

Good questions. I don't know the specific law in Alabama, but typically zoning changes are only done at the request of the property owner. I can't go request to have somebody's zoning changed without their knowledge. The city may, depending on the local laws, re-zone entire areas for more intensive use, because that rasies value(they typically can't "down-zone" property in most cases). Or, in this case, the town may have very loose zoning, as it is that way in small communities.

[LetsRok]

I read about a similar situation in Baltimore. The city wanted to create a riverfront shopping area and a bunch of older houses were snatched up by the city. The mayor's said that the taxes generated by the strip mall outweighed the property taxes paid by the homeowners.

It wasn't fair that all these poor people had such desirable land and did not want to share with the city.</sarcasm off>

[blackdog]

Costco-Small Communities.........Now let's see, what's problematic with that? Costco, Walmart, Piggly Wiggly, Krogers, and such don't look for rural farmland to set up shop. They exist entirely on suburban sprawl. That may happen fast in some chronology tables, but it usually takes twenty years to move five miles. I call that pretty easy to spot working it's way to your doorstep.

[myrabach]

I don't know the legal in's and out's for zoning and how a community can change zoning. I do know however, farm land in Bucks County was continuously rezoned to force out farmers and purchased by developers. Agricultural land in some communities was being taxed at the same rate as residential, and I know for a fact that the farmers had no say in the matter--even those who were proactive in local government.