Uncle Matt, I agree wholeheartedly. Two developers from the Twin Cities had grand plans of building 43 houses on 50 acres of a nearby rural Minnesota parcel that adjoined a lake. They planned to put in a marina with 30 plus slips on a 400 acre lake. The outcry from the community was loud and clear. But so was the county commissioner who snidely told the group of concerned citizens "There's a simple solution. Buy the land otherwise you're wasting you're time."

Although I knew he was right legally, I stood up and said that was the most a--anine, stuck-up and arrogant thing I had ever heard an elected official utter. The message was loud and clear - money solves the problem. We shouldn't debate whether or not that's too many houses in a shoreland district and the environmental impact it would have. We should just buy the land and let the laws lie where they were. No sense in changing things for the better. Just get out your checkbook.

BTW, in our case, the developers backed off and planned half that many houses and one dock with a dozen slips, which is probably what they had intended all along. But you have to shoot for the moon to land among the stars as they say. I'd doubt the author of this post could get that far with the guy he's describing.