Neighbor's dimensional anchor is drifting into my yard
My neighbor installed a dimensional anchor last fall and it's been slowly drifting south ever since. It's now about a foot and a half past the property line into my yard, and the stabilization field is affecting my garden. Everything in a 3-foot radius around it is growing sideways. I've talked to him twice and he says it's "within tolerance." I looked it up and municipal code says anchors need to be 4 feet from the property line. His is currently negative one feet from the property line, which is to say, in my yard. Who do I even call about this?
You want the Dimensional Setback office at the county, not O.O.P.S. They handle anchor encroachment specifically. File form DS-4 (Anchor Drift Complaint). Be warned, they're going to send an inspector out and the inspector is going to measure from the anchor's ORIGINAL installation point, not its current position, so bring documentation showing where it's moved to. Also, take photos of the sideways garden. That's strong evidence of field overlap and they take that seriously.
Had this exact problem. Turned out my yard was the thing drifting, not the anchor. The anchor was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. My property had a slow positional drift that nobody caught because we don't get surveys done often enough around here. Just something to check before you escalate. My surveyor found my house had moved about eleven feet south over five years. It was very upsetting.
Update: filed the DS-4. Inspector came out yesterday. He measured from the original installation point and confirmed the anchor has drifted approximately 5.3 feet south, which is past the property line AND past the 4-foot setback minimum. My neighbor is going to be required to reposition it. Also, I took the photos of the sideways garden. The inspector looked at them, said "huh," took his own photos, and then asked if the tomatoes were doing ok. They are, actually. They're thriving. Growing horizontally along the fence like a vine. The inspector said he's "never seen that" and asked me what variety they were.
Glad it worked out. Fair warning: "required to reposition" means he'll get a notice with a 90-day compliance window. In practice that means 89 days of nothing and one very stressful day with a contractor. The sideways tomatoes sound like a stabilization field perk, honestly. If he moves the anchor you might lose them. Something to consider before you celebrate.