NIMBY, “Not in My Back Yard,” has been getting a real workout in this area lately.

NIMBY most often is associated with people who say they want prisons, but not in their back yard.

There have been several instances, one of which personally affects me, in northeast Allegan County over the past couple of months. The one closest to me geographically is a proposed residential development just to the north of Dahlia Street in Leighton Township.

My family and I suffered from urban sprawl about 15 years ago when the Serenity Ridge development came in just to the north of the subdivision in which I live. Cleared from the landscape was what my two children referred to as “the dirt bikes” because that’s what so often was done back there in days gone by, an extensive wooded area with direct access to the Rabbit River.

My kids grew up building forts, catching a variety of small animals near the river and building small bonfires in back of our house. I am grateful for their experiences, but those days are gone. When I look out back to the north, I see only houses in another subdivision.

I was not pleased that Serenity Ridge became our neighbor, but I also understood very early in the game that there was nothing I could do to stop the development. Unless you’re willing to buy up all the land around you, you have to expect that someone else may come to live in an area near you.

I’ve heard at many meetings during my career the lament, “I moved out here to get away from the city.” Not only is this attitude unrealistic, it is selfish.

Indeed, many of the neighbors who protested the arrival of the Dahlia subdivision, told of traffic, noise and safety problems. Though these are valid concerns, you cannot stop the march of progress, the march of urban sprawl.

Now comes, in just the last couple of months:

• A Best Western Hotel between the Big Boy Restaurant and Family, Farm & Home in Wayland just off U.S-131.

• A farm machinery sales and service business near the corner of 142nd Avenue and Division in Leighton Township.

• A new residential development at 14th Street and 142nd Avenue in Dorr.

• A used car dealership in the former space occupied by Chemical Bank along Division Avenue in Leighton Township.

• An unknown future use of a lot along 12th Street and 129th Avenue in Hopkins Township, purchased by the Gun Lake Tribe.

• A residential development just south of the City of Wayland, to the east of 10th Street.

It’s no secret that Grand Rapids from the north and Kalamazoo from the south are spreading their tentacles to include plum territory for commercial and residential development. It’s been going on for more than 30 years. It isn’t pleasant. It’s inevitable.

The only case in which I see a potential difference is proposed the air park, air strip, or airport approved by the Leighton Township Board, but which also will be decided at the Aug. 7 primary election. Citizens fighting against such a development had to take matters into their own hands and gather enough petition signatures to have the issue placed on the ballot.

But what happens then, if the air park air strip or airport (whichever you prefer) is turned down?

It’s just about all citizens can do to fight back. It’s time consuming, expensive and perhaps even foolhardy.

You can’t stop progress. You can’t fight City Hall. You can’t stop urban sprawl, you can only manage it.