Vanessa Dayton wanted to build a house in the Bryn Mawr woods. Then the neighbors found out.

As Vanessa Dayton walked through the woods in a Bryn Mawr neighborhood she hopes to someday call home, a group of bundled-up children led by teachers trundled over the horizon on a nearby hill, navigating their way through rocks and branches.

They're just the sort of schoolchildren Dayton hopes to someday invite to the house she plans to build in the woodsy area called Anwatin Woods, some of which was used by the city for decades to dump construction debris. She bought the equivalent of eight city lots in August with plans for a sustainable urban farmstead with gardens and honeybees, a pond with ducks and maybe a small barn for chickens. She envisioned using it as a demonstration farm for kids.

Then the neighbors learned that someone had bought up the woods where they walk dogs, ride bikes and take shortcuts to school.

Since then, there have been allegations of threats, destroyed "no trespassing" signs and angry confrontations.

There are signs of strife in Anwatin Woods: At the north entrance, a sign pinned on a tree says, "If you are interested in the effort to preserve this land as an Environmental Learning Center, please visit www.SaveAnwatinWoods.org." Although the website did not appear to be working recently, Save Anwatin Woods is a neighborhood advocacy group that has advocated for using some of the woods as an environmental learning lab for schools.

A few steps away, a homemade "welcome" sign beckons walkers to use a rerouted trail near construction fencing Dayton has erected around two lots on which she plans to build a house. The fence cut off part of the trail, so residents created a new path around it.

A few steps farther, a series of small signs dot the side of a trail, designating the area as the "Anwatin-Bryn Mawr School Forest."

Another sign says, "Welcome to Paapaase Plains home of Minneapolis Nature Preschool." A series of small green signs on the hillside explain how for years the trail was known as Woodpecker Way and children called the surrounding area the "the danger zone" or "the concrete jungle" because of the construction debris, much of which the city recently hauled away. One sign bemoaned the "boring" space left behind.

In a Nov. 16 Minnesota Star Tribune commentary, Bryn Mawr neighborhood resident Juventino Meza said neighbors "have reported being confronted and harassed by a woman claiming ownership of the land, who ominously boasted of having 'lots of friends downtown.'"

In response, Dayton said Meza's commentary was "inaccurate and unfair."

Meza declined to comment for this story, deferring to other neighbors. One, Patrick Waddick, said in an email that the neighbors don't want a story to jeopardize the work they're doing to preserve the city right of way.

"Our primary concern is to maintain the Vincent (Avenue S.) public right-of-way that exists through the woods and is heavily used by the school and neighborhood," he wrote. "We are working with our council person, park board representative and other city officials to preserve this neighborhood access."

A petition signed by more than 800 people decries the fenced-off "green space and wildlife habitat," alleges a "stranger" has been "accosting families enjoying a walk on a public path" and warns that individuals acting on behalf of Dayton may try to buy the adjacent land where there's a pathway through the woods. For years, children have taken a path through the woods as a shortcut to and from Anwatin Middle School and Bryn Mawr Elementary School.

Dayton said she was too heartbroken to talk about what has transpired since she bought the property. She referred questions to her lawyer, real estate agent and contractor.

"I'm too heartbroken to even advocate for myself," she said.

'She's not looking at building a McMansion'

Dayton's general contractor, Kim Griswold Holmberg, said the neighbors' negative reaction surprised Dayton.

"This has been a highly emotional thing for her," Griswold Holmberg said. "She's taken all of this to heart."

Dayton wants to build a "small, lovely home" of about 2,000 square feet.

"She's not looking at building a McMansion or anything," Griswold Holmberg said.

Dayton bought the land from a private owner for about $600,000 this year, according to Dayton's real estate broker, Carson Brooks. Her insurance agent told her to put up "no trespassing" signs due to liability concerns, so she did. The signs were repeatedly trashed. Minneapolis police records show she has made 15 police reports of damaged property and thefts since mid-September.

When Dayton would walk the property, "The homeowners became literally crazed and came after her anytime she was out there," Griswold Holmberg said.

Dayton created a PowerPoint presentation explaining her plan and sent it to residents, but that "infuriated them," Griswold Holmberg said.

"They can't step back and look at what an amazing, amazing opportunity this is for Vanessa, for the neighborhood, for the city of Minneapolis, for schoolchildren in north Minneapolis that have never grown a vegetable a day in their life," Griswold Holmberg said.

Brooks said that when on the property with Dayton, people would ask what they were doing there. He said some of them were "quite rude," calling her names and declaring, "This is our land."

Griswold Holmberg said that whenever she went to the land, she was met by a homeowner. She said she later learned the neighbors would alert each other to report anyone walking the property.

"It was very eerie," she said.

Dayton has stopped people to let them know when they're trespassing, and most are polite, but Griswold Holmberg said one "kind of came after her with a chain saw."

"She doesn't yell, but she says, 'You're trespassing,'" Griswold Holmberg said.

Brooks said the "rubble-strewn vacant land" went unsold for a couple of years because it had no street access and no city utilities, so the owner would have to invest in bringing water and sewer service to the property.

It's not unusual for a neighborhood to take ownership of vacant lots or parcels and make them their own, Brooks said.

"It's pretty classic and sometimes comical, and in this case, it's hard to understand why it's contentious," he said. "Bryn Mawr is a community that loves organic things and taking care of the land and environmental issues, and that's her entire passion, so hard to understand why they haven't embraced that."

Dayton built something similar outside of Boulder, Colo.: She bought a 2-acre parcel, built an urban garden and opened it to locals.

But she became ill with a rare autoimmune disorder and moved back to Minnesota for medical care a couple of years ago, Brooks said, and has since recovered and gone back to work, where he said she's "very much in demand as a high-level pathologist."

The Dayton name

Vanessa Dayton is, well, "a Dayton" — her ex-husband is David Dayton, an engineer and entrepreneur whose father was the late Douglas Dayton, the first president of Target Corp. He lives in the neighborhood where she bought land.

Could the Dayton name be playing a role in the neighbors' reaction? Meza wrote in his commentary that "[w]ealthy private interests are buying up land adjacent to public spaces and attempting to restrict community access, echoing similar moves in Duluth."

That's a reference to Kathy Cargill's buying up of 10 properties in Duluth, which stirred outrage. But Griswold Holmberg rejects the comparison, saying, "It's nothing like that."

It's about three-fourths of an acre, Brooks said, and was private property that the neighbors could have bought, too.

Dayton wants to build a driveway down a stretch of city-owned land where Vincent Avenue was not finished, and in exchange, give the city lots that could be used to create a new trail to the school. That would require the city to vacate some land and approve the driveway, and while initially city officials were "very excited because nobody's ever done anything like this," the city now seems to want to "make sure everybody is happy," Griswold Holmberg said.

Council Member Katie Cashman, in whose ward the property sits, released a statement saying her office has met with both Dayton and community members concerned about maintaining the right of way.

"I completely respect Ms. Dayton's right to pursue plans on the parcels she now owns within the confines of city land use and zoning policies," Cashman said. "However, I do not believe it is in the public's best interest to vacate the existing right-of-way for her private use and would not support such an application."

Dayton may just sell the property: Griswold Holmberg said developers have expressed interest in the property to build multifamily homes or rowhouses, which would be "whole lot more offensive" than a single-family home and garden.

Eight homes could technically be built on the lots, Brooks said.

After hearing about Cashman's opposition to vacating the right of way, Dayton released a statement saying:

"I wanted to build a sustainable urban farmstead for myself and to educate others in what's left of my life, then to pass on to the community. It seems very clear to me that the neighbors, via the city, intend to stop that. At this point, the most mindful thing to do would be to clean up the city's mess and donate to an affordable housing nonprofit that can be trusted to build sustainable family homes. Maybe for descendants of communities historically displaced or underserved by the governments of Minneapolis and Minnesota?"