Robo posted my webpage (thanks Rob) and it showed well the layout I had at my old house. I had bees like that (15 feet from the front door and 10 feet from the sidewalk leading to the front door) for more than 20 years - the only problem I ever had was one mail-lady would walk quickly to the mailbox, deposit and get out of there ASAP. Of course, I tried telling her, slow deliberate movements in the flight path were probably better, since bees tend not to really see you if you are stationary, but she wouldn't listen.
No one ever got stung, but you would get pinged as the exited and returned to the hives because due East toward that mailbox was their flight pattern. I kept a Beehive ahead sign at the front of the property, so people knew to look and never had an issue with anyone.
Now... since we moved last June, I kept the hive at the old house, we will be moving the hive here after the main pollen flow next month. Then it will go into our much larger back yard where it can easily be seen from the dining room and kitchen and we will be building a raised deck (we have a bilevel home) and it looks over thousands of acres of very pretty wooded land. It will be ideal for watching the bird feeders and the beehives - I'll be having a few more now that I have the land for it. No more flight path issues then.
But again, I and everyone here it seems agrees, you should have no problems, hives are too busy searching for food stores to bother with people, and as you saw/read the hive is up against my property line with the old neighbor, who I had holding a frame of bees barehanded about 30 minutes after meeting him. And that is a big issue, you (I believe) have to have informed neighbors, they need to know that your bees are good for their trees, plants, etc..
Showing them how confident you are with them is a big seller if the neighbors are still skeptical. Also, let them know what swarming really is, most people have this impression (which I think they got from watching too many cartoons as a kid) that swarms are honeybees on a rampage - we all know it is as oppositely true as possible and so should they. When uniformed people see a swarm, and it is a site to behold, they think of Hitchcock's the Birds and expect them to swoop down and attack, as is the same as when they see the swarm lighting on a branch or mailbox or whatever, they fear it and need to be taught the truth, and THAT is the job of the beekeeper.
Keep it real, don'tlie to make it seem that they are little kittycats with wings, be real and express the good and also the steps to handle issues like swarming. Informed neighbors are good neighbors, otherwise they always have fear and that leads to tension across the fence. That is something you can almost always put an end to - just by explaining the basics of hive activity.
