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Building and inconveniencing neighbors
I'm guessing our situation is a little different, because most people I know built in plans, so construction was to be expected. But what are your feelings about mud on the road?
DH was out at our property this weekend and as he was leaving one of the neighbors at the bottom of the hill (3 doors down) flagged him and asked DH what he was going to do about the mud on the road (township road). Before DH could say anything the guy started into, "I don't mind if you build up there..." which really irritated DH and set him off a little bit.
I mean seriously, we bought the property, we're going to build there whether you MIND or not. And to be fair, we've put extra gravel down. It wasn't even clumps of mud, it was just muddy water running down the street. With the rain and snonw melting I'm not sure what we could do to stop it. We don't even have water or anything hooked up, so we couldn't wash it off.
DH said, "Call the township--end of discussion" and left it at that. Prior to this incident I thought it would be nice to invite all the neighbors up for a BBQ when we're done building, to thank them for their patience and understanding. But this guy rubbed me the wrong way with his, "I don't mind if you build up there" comment. He's off the guest list. 
Did anyone who built have any sort of issues like this? How'd you handle it? I told DH to have one of his friends from the water autority dig up the water main next to his house and use it to wash the street.
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Re: Building and inconveniencing neighbors
There is always at least one a$$hole in any neighborhood who think they own the place and if you track mud, build a fence, have a farm and yes sometimes livestock get out of fences (this was a neighbor who moved down the road from my families farm a property that has been in the family 200 years while the douche who moved in only lived there a month and his house is surrounded by four farms). Personally I think if he and his family didn't want to deal with animals or their smells he wouldn't have chosen to move into a property surrounded by farms. I know he complained to the township and the laughed at him and told him to get over it.
Anyway back to your neighbor. When you are building there isn't anything to do about dirty roads. They are just a fact of life. Just keep in mind that this guy will most likely be your problem neighbor, the one who will complain out everything from not mowing often enough to mud on the road to how noisey your children are.
We've never built a home, but have had extensive outdoor renovations done to ours. We had our entire concrete staircase and driveway gutted and redone. We live in the city so the houses are on top of each other. It caused a lot of dirt, dust, and grime over the 2+ months it took to complete. We had a few side-eyes and a few rude comments, I felt bad, but there was nothing that we could do about it, other than ask the contractor to clean up when he was finished.
I would try not to worry about it and not take the neighbor's comments to heart. Maybe it just came out wrong and if it he meant it exactly how it sounded, then try not to pay too much mind, every neighborhood has the "foreman." Like I said, you really can't avoid making a mess in a process like that.
My Bio
I guess my feelings are that the muddy water running down the street is the problem of a January thaw and gravity. Neither of which we have control over--so someone complaining about that and asking what we're going to do about it is someone trying to "throw their weight around" and trying to be a PITA.
I am not blind to the fact that our building is going to be an inconvenience to our neighbors, but if you don't like the effects of gravity, don't live at the bottom of a hill.
Tell him to call the township - it's their responsibility to contact the contractor (if there is an ordinance about keeping the streets clean, or whatever).
My DH has worked on numerous residential jobsites and new neighborhoods and they have to line the streets with that orange tubing stuff to keep the dirt, rocks and mud from going into the street - township rules.
As for the neighbor, ignore him.
My three sons!
I would go the killing with kindness thing too. "Oh I know, this weather isn't helping either! Let me talk to the builder to see if there isn't anything they can do to prevent the runoff."
Our neighbor had a water main break repaired in the cul-de-sac and our street was muddy until it rained enough for it to wash away. I never thought to tell them that I was ok that they got their water pipe fixed but then complain about the mud.
Try not to dwell on the grump's comments. We had a grumpy neighbor at the old house, and he was nice to talk to when he wasn't busy being a know it all. you don't have to be his BFF but try to be neighborly.
The killing with kindness route is definitely my style--but DH is more likely to tell him to get bent.
I will advise DH to just tell him, repeatedly, to call the township.
Hopefully the interactions with him will be minimal until this construction period is over. And then I hope he doesn't find something new to complain about.