Did a road improvement project in Illinois circa 1995 - took the pavement from 3 to 5 lanes and added sidewalks. City asked for temporary construction easements from adjoining property owners so they could grade back from the sidewalk. They even paid token amounts for them. Everyone signed up except one property owner - he screamed at the City every time they contacted him, and finally stopped answering their calls. The sidewalks fit inside the existing right of way, so the city just built them, left a 10" to 18" vertical excavation on their edge and put up about 200 feet of orange plastic construction fence on steel t-posts across the front of the asshole's property. It took about 2 weeks, but the asshole finally started calling the city wanting to negotiate. They ignored him until after the contractor completed the job, demobilized and left the site. They then explained that the window had closed and the property owner would be responsible for grading his land and obtaining the necessary permits. Oh and by the way the current conditions in front of his home were contrary to existing zoning requirements. I believe they finally came to some sort of arrangement, but the property owner got to foot at least part of the bill - and received no payment from the city. I thought it was a just outcome at the time.