Property owners dispute need advice on denying my neighbor rezone

[Joshua Hardy]

Warning, Wall of Text. 

Too Long Didn't Read: I own a half acre lot which is an island inside of a 23 acre parcel.  My neighbor is trying to rezone 3 acres for his HVAC business as storage which his employees would go to and fro.  I don't want this to happen.  I would like to buy him out, and prevent him from rezoning.. however I don't want to cause a problem with my neighbor if the fiscal court still approves his rezoning request, if I were to actively try to prevent it.

Hello everybody, I hope this is the place to post this.  I own a kind of odd lot, basically it's a 100 by 200 feet lot, that is 150 off the highway.  The lot is an island, (or an enclave), I have a deeded right of way that allows me to go on the driveway to my property.  This deeded access also includes that I am to maintain the driveway.  The 23 acre parcel that my lot sits in is completely undeveloped.  The lot got created a long time ago, probably bank financed the house, and the previous land owner seller financed to the guy in the house, however it all must have fallen through.  The house was burnt down in 1989, and prior to my purchase of the lot last year had lied dormant.  

I have cleared out the property and began construction (with appropriate permits) of a single family home.  In January of 2016 my now new neighbor bought the 23 acres, with the intent of putting up a storage building for his HVAC business.  However the county won't allow employees coming and going from the storage buildings for commercial purposes with the existing zoning of Agricultural.  My neighbor has requested a re-zoning of 3 acres, which borders my property on three sides.  And his plans were to extend the existing driveway back to his parking lot and building area.  

I don't want to share a driveway, much less have the ag land changed.  So I went to the zoning public hearing and requested they deny the rezoning request, but at the very least add a binding element for a separate access point.  They approved the rezoning request, but did add a binding element that he had to ask permission from the KY department of transportation, however if they deny his access point request then a shared access point would have to be used.  I read this as they would have to create a separate driveway.  However In fiscal court this morning I was told that was not the case, that the language that is written does not require a separate driveway to be created in the event of a denial of a separate access point.  In fiscal court I was told my options for requesting a denial, and they also held back the first reading of passing the zoning change until the next meeting.  

OKAY, sorry for the wall of text. Basically I am wanting to buy my neighbor out, however he doesn't want to sell.  He thinks he got a great deal (which he did).  He bought the 23 acres for 70K.  Of course he has had to pay for surveyors and for zoning hearings.  I would sell, however I'm in the middle of construction, and I have sentimental value to the property, also it's in a great location.  Plus my strategy is buy and hold.  But I would want somewhere close to 60K+ if I were to sell... In the current condition it is... which it really isn't worth that much(I don't think).  

Should I continue to fight the zoning change?  Should I call my neighbor up and ask him to buy again?  He wanted to know a price on my lot, which at one time I offered to sell to him (prior to getting building approval) for 15K, however he wanted to low ball and offer me 7, and then reluctantly 10K.  I obviously now want more for the lot, but don't really want to sell it, but would be willing if the offer was extremely high... but I am not going to give a number first, that breaks the rule of Roger Dawson's book on power negotiating.  

Anyways, what do you guys think?  Thanks for any help.  

[Wayne Brooks]

The rezoning sounds like a done deal. The DOT request is necessary, since they approve/disapprove new ingress/egress points on to their roads. It also seems if the DOT denies, he gets to use the shared driveway, they're just making him ask for a separate drive. So, he got basically what he wanted, and you have little to no leverage at this point....he doesn't need to make you happy. Seems your best bet at this point is to "help" him get his separate entrance, even though it's cheaper for him to be denied, it seems.