Good fences make great neighbours

Poet Robert Frost got it right. And for 16 residents of O'Connor Court, in the northeast portion of Cobourg, a noise fence to protect them from the loud sounds coming off of Highway 401 are both a blessing and a curse.
One family is going to have to remove a portion of their deck and kill plans to build a backyard pool after town officials started to build the fence. It turns out the town wants to use a swath of land about three metres (about nine feet) deep.
One of the residents, Rhonda Baitley is protesting the move, saying she knew nothing in advance. Sadly, the town was clear in its plan of subdivision back in 2003, but Baitley said the subdivision developer failed to inform her.
Already all the affected residents have signed a petition. The town is prepared to negotiate a reduction in the amount of land it needs and a solution may be found.
It would be overly easy to say "too bad" to Baitley. As a consumer, she needed to make herself aware of all details of her home purchase. Most people don't review a subdivision plan when they purchase a new home. And, it would also be simple to get upset with the developer for allegedly not informing her when they made the purchase. Then, the town could ensure this doesn't happen by putting notices on the titles.
Yes, there is plenty of blame to be spread around.
But from a process point of view, how much can we expect? Most people don't make themselves aware. With few exceptions, people go around uninformed about the most basic things going on. Local news media fail to cover details of meeting. And politicians don't make any extraordinary efforts to keep citizens up to speed, saving the public meetings that are legislated. It is hard to imagine the balance between a citizen's responsibility and the political and institutional culpability.