Life has changed on me once again. I had a plan - I live for plans - and now I'm going to have to adjust to a slight curve ball. We purchased our small house with the intent of living here for a couple years, enjoying the relative quiet of the neighbourhood and the cows that live immediately behind us. When the timing was right (next year was our original thought), we would purchase land toward the mountains with the intent of building our earthship.
Well, W saw a sign just off the main road that acreage was for sale. We decided to call on a fluke and find out how much was available and what they wanted for it. Imagine our surprise when the gentleman explained that there was a 15 acre tract and they wanted $70,000 per acre!! Well, he explained it was "because of the hospital." News to us. (As we don't have cable and don't get any newspapers, we're often the last to find out about much of anything.)
So, the hospital will be 1.1 miles away from our house and construction is planned to begin any day now. The map shows just how close it will be. Where previously there was a large cow pasture, there will now be a hospital & (presumably) a medical park as well.
As one would expect, I'm immediately concerned about our property values, followed by the noise of construction (2 - 3 years to build), and potentially increased traffic. Although we don't have even an acre currently, we are almost at the end of a quiet cal-de-sac and have only cows behind us. Assuming the pasture behind us remains a pasture (a poor assumption maybe?), I think we will survive the construction but are now tied to this house much longer than we planned.