Anyone have experience with lines of sight/obstructed views when developing properties?
I have an old friend who has an great piece of hillside property - 50 acres with probably the highest point in the area and 270 degree view of the countryside.  The hilltop is a perfectly flat 10 acre plot with surrounding woods.

He has been unable to do anything with it during his career (long story). Recently the village annexed the property behind and below him and it's in now development for 100 or so homes.  The development plan clearly foreshadows building on his property, as the main road through the neighborhood ends at his property line just where the flattest, best part of his land begins.

Long story short, the developer has built up a portion of their property about 50' higher to create several plots that now have a premium view, and will overlook my friend's entire property.  They've also cleared trees to remove the natural barrier between his and their property.

My friend is a curmudgeon and has already built a wall of junk cars along the property line and plans to start a hog farm in protest.  He has been fighting to keep this property for decades despite some strong offers and having little money himself.

I'm not trying to start a legal thing, but we had an interesting discussion at breakfast over developers and property rights. Seems like this development would harm the value of his land as a single home site, but increase the value to other developers?  What if the old guy opens a driving range and puts up 100' nets that obstruct the views of the development? Or raises his own plot by 50 feet?  Who's line of sight-rights prevail?

Anyone run into something like this before?
[{"id": "iw3k7bq", "text": "Unless they have an easement or deed restriction on your friend\u2019s property they likely don\u2019t have any \u2018line of sight rights.\u2019 Kinda similar thing in my neighborhood where my neighbors feel entitled to their view because they paid $50k extra for their homes but the developer didn\u2019t own the adjacent property where \u2018their\u2019 view is. The guy that does own wants to develop it and that\u2019s one of the points of contention in the approval process. \n\nNow there may be some zoning issues with storing junk cars or building a driving range. Same guy in my previous example has a tit for tat going on with another neighborhood that has turned into a costly legal battle over how he\u2019s currently using the property.", "replies": [{"id": "iw3n56r", "text": "Very interesting, thanks.  My friend has 2 parcels - the smaller is licensed as a junkyard, and the larger hilltop area was also used as a junkyard decades ago but is now just cleared land.  I don't know what zoning it falls under today - he may be indeed be in violation.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iw5c12n", "text": "Fortunately, neither parties can do much to affect what the other is doing on their own property. This is likely a price to pay for not selling out earlier. Have him do whatever he wants, so long as it\u2019s within the law. Line of sight laws refer to intersections that require property owners to maintain a line of site at the intersection so that cars can see what\u2019s coming and cause less accidents.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]