I love where they throw subdivisions anymore. Around me there is tons of old strip mine land. I heard one time that it would take a 30 to 40 years after a strip operation reclaims for the land to fully settle back into place. I'm not educated on earth moving, so this could be wrong(not the first time)
10 years ago a developer built a sub division on what was essentially a swamp and the surrounding area had been stripped about 20 years prior. It was a bowl shaped area, with a swamp(natural spring) in the center. So they dug out the spring area, made it into a lake, then built houses in an inner ring and outer ring around the lake. Looked like a nice place! My aunt built a new home there, my mother in law, and a few other people I know. Every single driveway and sidewalk in that development is cracked, my aunt and my mother in laws house had cracked drywall seams, and both of them had minor cracking in the basement walls. All of the homeowners in that development reported the same things.
Although those homes were not the best built. The area is unzone, unregulated, and I don't know if my county employs a code enforcer, but I have personally never seen one. The county website simply informs you to call your township trustees for information. If you call them, they basically blow you off. When I called about constructing the foundation for my proposed garage I had questions about water line locations on my property, and several other questions about accepted methods the guy I talked to basically told me to do whatever I want and refused to answer any questions. My wife's relative is the head of the water department, I had him come out with a map and verify I would be clear to dig.
I did some work in my mother in laws house repairing drywall, redoing some floors, and other things. I noticed quite a few things that never would of passed a code inspection. I would of loved to of seen what was behind the drywall! All the water lines, drain and supply to the back half of the house ran through the cold air returns. They had one leaking, and all the water ran down the duct work, leaked at various points in the duct work, and also made it down into the furnace. It was quite a mess.