Minneapolis, MN
Vanessa Dayton wanted to build a house in the Bryn Mawr woods. Then the neighbors found out.
Dayton has stopped people to let them know when they’re trespassing, and most are polite, but Griswold Holmberg said one “kind of came after her with a chain saw.”
“She doesn’t yell, but she says, ‘You’re trespassing,’” Griswold Holmberg said.
Brooks said the “rubble-strewn vacant land” went unsold for a couple of years because it had no street access and no city utilities, so the owner would have to invest in bringing water and sewer service to the property.
It’s not unusual for a neighborhood to take ownership of vacant lots or parcels and make them their own, Brooks said.
“It’s pretty classic and sometimes comical, and in this case, it’s hard to understand why it’s contentious,” he said. “Bryn Mawr is a community that loves organic things and taking care of the land and environmental issues, and that’s her entire passion, so hard to understand why they haven’t embraced that.”
Dayton built something similar outside of Boulder, Colo.: She bought a 2-acre parcel, built an urban garden and opened it to locals.