A recent story in the AJC chronicled the ongoing dispute between a local landscaper and GDOT:

Dennie Rennow stood her ground, stared down a backhoe and made a utility say uncle.

Rennow, a landscaper from Duluth, has been mired in a right-of-way dispute with the Georgia Department of Transportation, which is building an underpass at Pleasant Hill Road and Buford Highway, and AGL Resources, which has to move a pipeline to accommodate the new road.

She said mistakes in a transportation department survey has cost a small forest, two fences and her peace of mind. It almost cost her corgi’s grave because she had buried the dog in what is now disputed territory.

The dispute, specifically, is about the location of her property line. Where does GDOT’s property begin, and Rennow’s end?

If it were up to GDOT, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d just as soon take all of Georgia so they could pave it all. But that’s beside the point.

Buried in the article is yet another sign of GDOT’s true arrogance:

She said she has provided plats from Gwinnett County to prove her point that the DOT’s survey takes anywhere from 3 to 16 feet too much land on what she calls the 75-foot swath of destruction.

How often does this happen? You’ll never see an official investigation, and I’d be willing to bet that no advocacy group would be willing to take up the cause and start double-checking GDOT’s surveys. It would be in the best interest of Georgia’s local governments and citizens if this did happen.

The reality of road boundaries are not truly physical, anyway. When the interstate highway system first came under construction as a combination defense and urban renewal project, neighborhoods were torn up without any regard to who lived there or how the local citizens felt. Urban crime became a major problem once these highways were built. To that extent, the damage from building large highways went far beyond their physical borders.

Another recent article in the AJC chronicled the noise problem of big highways. Tell me if this sounds familiar:

“The noise is so disturbing you have to yell at each other to have a conversation,” said Joy Morrison, 48, who, from her backyard can see and hear the sea of cars swiftly moving north. “The noise just overrides everything. We had people come in and look and no offers at all.”

Perhaps it’s not surprising that a house closer to the highway typically stays on the market longer and sells at a lower price. The noise caused by highways also demonstrates their boundary problem. Wherever highways are built, they tend to depress home values due to the noise.

Even if Dennie Rennow wins her battle with GDOT, her way of life will be affected by the latest GDOT boondoggle, as will her neighbors. The good news is that this particular boondoggle, reconfiguring Un-Pleasant Hill Road to go under the railroad tracks, will help make room for an expansion of railroad service along that line — possibly even commuter rail, if the legislature doesn’t keep butting in. The intermittent noise coming from the trains, compared to the constant noise of cars, will be more tolerable.

Road boundaries exist far beyond their physical layout. With their myopic view of transportation and land policy, I’m afraid GDOT will never truly understand that.