Some years ago, a sportsman's club I am a director of lost the lease on our club property after the death of the owner. We found another piece of property and invested significant time and money in securing an option to buy, contingent on receiving a required zoning variance. We anticipated no issues with the zoning.
Someone who had previously tried to buy the property was pissed that we got the deal done. He organized several "neighbors", all of whom lived more than a mile away from the property to object to our variance. Their objections were ridiculous and I prepared a presentation showing them to be baseless. Our attorney said he had no doubt we would prevail and get the variance. However, he also said that these people would not go away. He expected we would forever be dealing with baseless complaints and possibly frivolous lawsuits.
We cut a deal and found another location.
