Predatory Land practices

We often think of development fights as zoning debates, land-use maps, or court battles. But before those headlines, before neighbors turn against neighbors, before a community is torn apart, there’s something much quieter and more insidious at play: predatory land practices.

It starts with offers that seem too good to be true. Because they are.

These “offers” are often crafted to sound appealing—dangling promises of generational wealth and easy exits. But dig into the details, and you’ll find contracts that tie up landowners for years, offload risk entirely onto residents, and leave families on the hook for thousands in taxes, legal fees, and uncertainty.

In the Gainesville District, we’ve seen it firsthand.

On Pageland Lane, some families were promised a future of financial security. Today, some of those same neighbors are facing bankruptcy. The buyers? Nowhere to be found. The land? Locked in limbo. The community? Bitterly divided.

Earlier this year, our own neighborhood received one of these offers—delivered by Corey Stewart and Pete Candland—offering $500,000 per acre to purchase the entire community. On paper, it sounded appealing to some of our neighbors. But behind the big number were terms that raised serious red flags:

• $100 in escrow was all it took to lock up a property, freezing it from sale or development for years—without any meaningful commitment from the buyer.
• Rezoning risk was placed entirely on the landowners, who would be expected to cover property taxes on newly rezoned land, including up to five years retroactively.
• A second escrow of $20,000 was offered later—but could be revoked for almost any reason, or no reason at all.
• Final acreage assessments would occur after landowners were fully committed, potentially reducing payouts or altering agreements when it was too late to back out.

Our community said no.

And Laura and I made it clear: We are not for sale.

Let me be clear—I can’t and won’t tell people what contracts they can or can’t sign. But as your Supervisor, I can educate, I can advocate, and I can expose the risks.

When landowners are armed with the full truth—not just the pitch deck—they can make informed decisions. When developers know they can’t hide behind misleading offers, the playing field becomes more fair. And when we stand together as a community, we protect not only our land, but each other.

This isn’t just about zoning. It’s about dignity. It’s about transparency. It’s about refusing to let outside interests pit neighbors against each other.

It’s about standing up for Gainesville.