Sometimes they change their mind. Developers cull information from phone calls, visits, and public records, Mangano said. They try to guess when a farmer might start to worry about taxes, or a child's college tuition, or retirement. Mangano said Toll keeps files on every major landowner in the Philadelphia area. At the reading of the will one week later, Chupik said, he opened his information packet to find an offer from a developer.
Some landowners say fear is used as a tactic.
They cite a widely distributed letter that Toll sent to landowners. Nonprofit groups and some municipalities were trying to rewrite land-use plans to curb growth and reduce lot sizes in the area, the letter said. Douglass R. Gamble, the Toll land-acquisition official whose name is on the letter, said many ordinance rewrites include provisions for cluster developments that limit lot sizes and what can be built on them. That leads to higher development costs that are passed on to home buyers, he said. Stock Illoway, an avid conservationist, said he has learned to look at the situation positively.