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Architectural Digest: Inside America’s Priciest Trailer Park, Where a Mobile Home Is on Sale for $5.85 Million

  •    Originally released by Architectural Digest on April 24th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

It’s no surprise that the listing for 247 Paradise Cove Road, a three-bedroom property currently on the market for $5.85 million, opens with a description of the views. “This open-concept home is located on one of Paradise Coves’ most desirable streets, offering stunning ocean views and ultraclose proximity to direct beach access,” the Zillow page reads. Of course, this makes sense given the home itself isn’t a mansion, a villa, or even an architectural gem—it’s a trailer. 

Located within Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park, the Malibu house’s neighborhood is widely considered the priciest trailer park in the country. The home at 247 Paradise...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Why do they call this property “Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park”? It seems odd that the owners use the old vernacular on a property where the mobile homes sell in the millions of dollars. Why not adopt a classier new name like “Paradise Cove Cottages” or just “Paradise Cove” and leave the “mobile home park” off? If you look at some of the ads by local realtors selling mobile homes in this park, they almost deliberately use the “trailer park” label as though it’s a draw. Weird.

Even tiny home developments strive to erase the “trailer park” association. Maybe they’re wrong?

The Coast News Group: Oceanside looks to ease cost burdens on mobile home parks

  •    Originally released by The Coast News Group on April 20th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

OCEANSIDE — The city is considering waiving registration fees to ease rising cost burdens on mobile home park owners and residents.

While mobile home park owners are required to pay the fee, they can pass on half of that fee to park residents. The collected fees go toward a fund that helps the city pay to administer Chapter 16B of its municipal code, also known as the Manufactured Homes Fair Practices ordinance. 

First formed in the 1980s, the ordinance provides a rent control element that caps rent increases for only mobile home parks in the city and ensures park owners receive a fair profit. Oceanside is one of the few cities in the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Even more evidence that California mobile home park owners are thrill seekers.

Bradenton Herald: A new take on affordable housing? Bradenton man unveils home made of shipping containers

  •    Originally released by Bradenton Herald on April 24th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

After more than three years of planning, persistence, manual labor and financial investment in a dream that would not die, affordable housing activist Glen Gibellina wants the world to know about his shipping container home.

Looking at it, you wouldn’t know that the attractive split-level home started out as three shipping containers manufactured in China.

Gibellina bought two 40-by-8-foot containers for $5,000 each and a 20-by-8 container for $3,800 and picked them up at the Port of Tampa.

They are “one-trippers,” containers that were used to transport products only once. They make a better tiny home because they haven’t been through the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This is not a new idea. The late Tony Hseih of Zappos.com fame also had this idea. It failed miserably. His personal assistant gave us a tour of his development called “Containerland” in Las Vegas years ago, and told us that he abandoned using storage containers because they heat up so bad in the summer that it’s like living in an oven.

ABC 30: Former Trails End Mobile Home Park set to close, residents worry about next move

  •    Originally released by ABC 30 on April 25th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Residents at a northeast Fresno mobile home park have been given notice that they have one year to sell or move their trailers out of the La Hacienda Mobile Estates, formerly known as Trails End Mobile Home Park.

Now, tenants are worried they'll have nowhere to go and will end up homeless.

"I don't think there's a place in this town I can afford to rent on my income - on my social security," Leslie Wright said.

Wright is worried about where she's going to live this time next year.

About a week ago, she received a letter from the La Hacienda Mobile Estates saying the company was terminating the tenancy to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Wow, this quote says it all regarding the closure of Trails End Mobile Home Park in Fresno:

“Action News reached out to Harmony Communities, the company that owns the mobile home park, to ask about the decision. In a statement, Chief Operating Officer Sherrie Johnson said: "After two years of lawlessness, no rents paid and people moving in and out without any registration or applications, we are attempting to restore order within the scope of state law and according to our agreement with the City of Fresno and the courts. Legal Aid's attempt to circumvent state law leaves this community and the surrounding community less safe. We will continue to honor our obligations and comply with state law at every turn."

So much for the one-sided narrative that the residents were all sweet angels and the park owner was the evil one.

And then there’s this classic quote by one of the residents :” "I don't think there's a place in this town I can afford to rent on my income - on my social security," Leslie Wright said”.

And that pretty much sums it up. The owner was the good-guy, providing the tenants with an incredible deal and they basically blew it by refusing to appreciate what they had. And now it’s gone.

Commercial Observer: Residents Reject Kolter Group’s $500M Offer for Oceanfront Trailer Park

  •    Originally released by Commercial Observer on April 24th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

Residents of an oceanfront mobile-home park in South Florida rejected a $503 million buyout offer from The Kolter Group. 

Nestled between some of the country’s most expensive ZIP codes, the Briny Breezes community spans 43 acres, housing 488 mobile trailers on a barrier island in Palm Beach County. Structured somewhat like a co-op, each homeowner owns between 20 and 80 shares in the Briny Breezes township.

The proposal — which totaled $502,496,000 — averaged out to just over $1 million per owner, but residents deemed it too low and rejected the bid last Thursday, the Coastal Star first reported.

Kolter executives “thought they were going...

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Our thoughts on this story:

These people are idiots.

WCAX: Scott administration ‘looking into’ mobile home parks for homeless

  •    Originally released by WCAX on April 25th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) - State leaders are exploring options for homeless Vermonters who may lose their emergency housing this summer.

With no more federal funding available to pay for emergency hotel rooms, the proposed state budget includes funding until the end of June, when the eligibility criteria will change. Housing advocates are worried about a looming wave of people being kicked out on the street.

Lawmakers in the House Humans Services Committee earlier in the session floated a plan to house Vermonters in vacant mobile homes and Governor Phil Scott says the idea has merit.

“There are a number of lots in some of the mobile home...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Good thing there are very few mobile home parks in Vermont so there are fewer nice people to torture with idiotic ideas like this.  State leaders are clearly insane if they think it’s fair to stuff reputable mobile home parks with homeless people. Has nobody followed the California success in this arena?

Source NM: The federal government accidentally burned down their houses, then made it hard to come home

  •    Originally released by Source NM on April 24th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

The wildfire had already burned 160 square miles of northern New Mexico forest last spring when it suddenly surged ahead, reducing to ash the cozy cabin David Martinez had built for himself more than two decades earlier.

Martinez, now 64, had fled days before, one of 15,000 people ordered to leave as the fire spread.

He spent the next three months sleeping near the edge of the fire in his pickup truck, his physical and mental health declining from the smoke, stress and lack of sleep. 

Desperate for shelter, he spent $5,000 or so of the emergency aid he’d received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on a down payment for a...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Wow. This makes commercial air travel look good.

Islander: HOA purchase of Pines Trailer Park fails

  •    Originally released by Islander on April 24th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

Negotiations have failed between the land owner and the homeowners in the Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach.

A resident, who requested anonymity, informed The Islander of the development April 20.

Throughout the negotiations over the sale of the bayfront mobile home park at 103 Church Ave., residents have been instructed by attorneys not to publicly discuss matters.

The partnership, with Richard and William Jackson as officers, listed the park for sale Jan. 25 for $16 million.

As required by state law, they first offered the park to the HOA members for purchase.

The Florida Mobile Home Act requires a park owner to give 45 days’ notice...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This quote says it all:

The partnership’s asking price then became $16.25 million. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page and a Give Send Go page were created to raise money for the HOA’s efforts, according to their organizers. The GoFundMe page, Save Our Old Florida Home, was created March 29. Gay Gavde-Forte of Cincinnati is identified as the page organizer. Suzanne Hynes is identified as the creator of the Givesendgo page. As of April 21, the GoFundMe campaign had raised $2,015 of a $1 million goal and the Givesendgo page had raised $1,227.

Somebody should bring this quote to every case in which the residents claim they are going to buy the property under the first option. All these first options do is waste everyone’s time.

Finance Commerce: Successor to former Lowry Grove mobile home park sold

  •    Originally released by Finance Commerce on April 25th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

The Urban Grove manufactured home park in St. Anthony traded hands late last month, according to a certificate of real estate value published last week.

The 32-unit park sits at 2501 Lowry Ave. NE in St. Anthony, about a mile north of the intersection of Interstate 35W and Northeast Stinson Boulevard. It’s at the location of once embattled Lowry Grove, a now-defunct mobile home park that was the source of a contentious debate and lawsuit centered on efforts to block redevelopment of the park.

The Village LLC, a company tied to Brad Hoyt’s Wayzata-based Continental Property Group, sold Urban Grove for nearly $8.8 million on March 31. The...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This article illustrates everything that’s wrong in America today! I’ll let you decide the moral.

The Orange County Registe: OC mobile home residents, who looked to legislature for rent relief, will have to wait

  •    Originally released by The Orange County Registe on April 25th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

Mobile home renters who were watching legislation in  meant to enact some  will have to continue waiting before they see relief — at least coming from the statehouse.

From Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, is  from increasing more than 3% plus the percentage of change in cost of living, or 5% annually, whichever is lower. It would not preempt any local ordinance that may offer even stronger protections for renters, Muratsuchi said.

The idea behind the bill is to protect lower-income and seniors on fixed incomes from losing their mobile homes as rents across...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Do you ever wonder why only landlords have rent control in California, and not everybody else? Fuel prices double, food triples, but only landlords get criticized and punished for the impact of inflation. In a capitalist country, it seems odd that price controls would only be applied to one finite portion of the economy.

AL: Baldwin County mobile home park owner continues fight for RV spots

  •    Originally released by AL on April 19th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

Recreational vehicles are a common feature in mobile home parks in Baldwin County, despite not being allowed under the county subdivision regulations.

That’s the argument that Steve Huffaker, who owns Pine Grove Estates, a mobile home park outside of Bay Minette, is making. Huffaker has had his park for 30 years and decided that he wanted to add a few spots for recreational vehicles in his park, for construction workers hired to work on the new Novelis aluminum recycling and rolling plant being built in the area.

“With the new aluminum plant coming in, I wanted to create RV spots for people to park their RVs,” Huffaker said. “These aren’t...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Mobile homes and RVs were one and the same until about 1976 with the establishment of the HUD seal. About 90% of all mobile home parks were built prior to 1976 and are grandfathered. So I seriously doubt that cities really have the right to restrict putting an RV on a lot. Most park owners are good-natured and don’t press this potentially false policy, but the demand for long-term RV spaces is growing and this is going to be a much bigger issue going forward. Probably time for some case law to bring this issue to an end.

Daily Breeze: Carson OKs overlay district to protect mobile home parks, residents

  •    Originally released by Daily Breeze on April 19th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

Carson will create a mobile home park overlay district, adding an extra layer of protection to preserve what some residents have called their last bastion of affordable housing options.

The City Council approved the overlay district this week.

Essentially, only mobile home parks will be allowed in that district. If property owners within that area want to redevelop a piece of land on which a mobile home park sits, they will have to apply for and receive a zoning change from the city, and provide a comparable number of affordable housing units for the residents there.

There are currently 21 mobile home parks in Carson. They “constitute a...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Carson OKs overlay district to protect mobile home parks, residents

Daily Mail: America's most expensive trailer park: Mobile homes in tight-knit Malibu community where celebrities like Sarah Paulson live are selling for as much as $5.85 MILLION

  •    Originally released by Daily Mail on April 21st, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

There is a trailer park in America where celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey, Pamela Anderson, Stevie Nicks, Minnie Driver and Sarah Paulson have all called home in recent years.

It's known as Paradise Cove Mobile Park and it's located in an exclusive section of Malibu where Pacific Ocean-side mansions go for hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The park holds 265 mobile homes across 85 acres, many of which are rusted and aged thanks to decades of ocean winds and California sun, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Some, however, are a far cry from a stereotypical 'mobile home,' equipped with designer furniture, high-end appliances...

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Our thoughts on this story:

OK, let’s be honest, Sarah Paulson is not a celebrity. I’ve never heard of her. Most of the “celebrities” in Paradise Cove – like Stevie Nicks and Pam Anderson – are no longer box office draws. I know that media groups like to sensationalize this park as the home of Hollywood royalty (maybe 20 articles so far) but Betsy Johnson is not exactly Elton John.

WFAA: Fort Worth mobile home park renters say rate increase has left them struggling to make ends meet due to fixed incomes

  •    Originally released by WFAA on April 22nd, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 28th, 2023

Preview:

FORT WORTH, Texas — Catherine DeLeon is rallying around her neighbors as they try to figure out how to make ends meet. Their new challenge comes because rent at their mobile home park in Fort Worth is jumping by hundreds of dollars. 

DeLeon lives at the K-Mar Mobile Home Park on the city's southeast side. It's something she never expected to deal with even after winning her battle against stage 4 cancer.

"We're all older. I'm 65 this year, and so there are other people that are older than that," DeLeon said. "You don't expect to have this kind of stress in your life." 

DeLeon is surrounded by neighbors who are all struggling with...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Even after the increase fo $600 per month, this mobile home park is nowhere near at market rent levels for D/FW. I understand that the residents hate this increase, but what do they want the owners to do? The residents have two paths ahead. They can either pay the higher rent (and other increases surely to follow) or move to something they think is more affordable. If they can’t find something that fits better, they need to stay put. But it’s their choice. The owner probably has 100 calls a week from customers more than happy to pay that higher rent.

This same tough choice is happening across all industries right now, from food to fuel, and from single-family homes to apartments. Prices are going up – way up – and only likely to move higher. You can’t hold that back, you can only adapt to it.

In all fairness, the average social security check in the U.S. is $1,200 per month. At $600 per month, the new rent is only about 50% of their social security income. The writer’s proportionality is way off.

Durango Herald: Colo. representative is running a bill to fix trailer park water

  •    Originally released by Durango Herald on April 18th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

EDWARDS – When Elizabeth Velasco first moved to Colorado from San Francisco del Rincón, Mexico, she was a teenager living in a series of aging mobile home parks in Eagle County – near the tony ski resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek, but also very far removed.

As a 15-year-old, Velasco says she was definitely aware of water-quality issues that have plagued mobile home parks in the mountains for decades. But as a 34-year-old political newcomer working to unseat an incumbent Republican last year, Velasco became acutely focused on “secondary” water-quality issues such as odor, taste and high mineral content.

“Here in New Castle, in Garfield...

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Our thoughts on this story:

A Democrat wants to regulate not only the safety of Colorado drinking water but also the “smell, taste and color”. I guess that’s fine, but whoever votes for this proposal needs to be reminded that the science required to alter the “smell, taste and color” will probably be really expensive, and lot rents will go up as a result. I’m not sure how many people want to pay to correct the “color” of their water – or if they will have that option. Since most Colorado mobile home parks are on city utilities, the only way to fix the “smell, taste and color” will be for the municipal water district to do so, which will probably cost tens of millions of dollars to accommodate on their part. Colorado is not exactly brimming with excess cash as a state, with the 20th largest debt load and nearly $20 billion owed to creditors. Spending money chasing the goal of Fiji water coming out of facets is not going to come cheap.

GV Wire: Harmony Closing Mobile Home Park. Future Use for Land Unknown.

  •    Originally released by GV Wire on April 18th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

A north Fresno mobile home park is set to close within 12 months, with several residents receiving new eviction notices last week.

Harmony Communities sent the notice to several renters demanding they leave the park within the next year. Some residents did not receive the new notice because they are already fighting the landlord on existing eviction notices.

The notice reads: “La Hacienda Mobile Estates, LLC … is exercising its right to terminate your tenancy for the purpose of permanently closing the Park.”

“We all knew it was coming. It was just a matter of time,” said a resident on Monday who did not want her name published.

Rumors...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The folks that turned down the new owner’s request to go from $300 to $600 in monthly lot rent are the ones that signed the death warrant for this property. They have nobody to blame but themselves. Here’s the only part of the article that tells the truth: 

“We’re disappointed because we fought really hard to stay here. We went to the city council meetings, you know, we wanted our voices to be heard, but obviously, it wasn’t enough,” Franquez said. Most units pay about $300 in rent. Several residents told GV Wire that Harmony tried to nearly double the rent. “They did try and they were only able to raise it $20,” Franquez said.

The median home price in Fresno is $350,000 and the average apartment is $1.770 per month. So let me get this straight: the bureaucrats will only let the new owners raise the rents to $320 per month – which is $1,450 per month less than apartments? 

If they had let the rent go to $600 per month, these residents would still have the sweetest housing deal in Fresno. Instead, they are all displaced and the land will be built into something else.

Smart move, Fresno officials.

STL Today: Mobile home park residents form co-ops to save their homes

  •    Originally released by STL Today on April 16th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

PORTLAND, Ore. — When Gadiel Galvez learned that the owner of his mobile home park south of Seattle was looking to sell, he and other residents worried their largely Latino community would be bulldozed to make way for another Amazon warehouse.

So, they decided to form a cooperative and buy their park in Lakewood, Washington. With help from a nonprofit that advises communities like theirs and helps them secure loans, they bought it for $5.25 million in September.

"Everybody thought, 'You know what? … I'm going to make this place the best that I can,'" said Galvez, 22, who is a co-op board member. "Some people painted their homes, some...

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Our thoughts on this story:

These articles remind me of someone hawking a timeshare. The numbers don’t compute but the salespeople try to use your ego as a tool to make you make a clearly stupid decision sometimes. Just read these two quotes from the article:

  1. "Just to have that peace of mind, to know that our rent is going to be locked in for awhile and not keep going up, and also knowing that our rent monies … are going back into the property, that is the cool part," she said.
  2. The required rent increase to go co-op was even steeper in Evergreen Village Cooperative in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania, — from $460 a month to $750 to pay off the $12 million loan.

When the residents buy their own property, what do they get? A big debt burden and higher lot rent most of the time. And what they lose is professional management that actually collects rents and doesn’t play favorites. Not a great trade.

The Saline Courier: 'From homeowner to homeless': Sunset Lake Mobile Home Park residents ousted after city buys land

  •    Originally released by The Saline Courier on April 18th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

Several residents of a Benton mobile home park are facing homelessness after the city purchased the land on which their trailers sit.

Residents of the Sunset Lake Mobile Home Park received a notice on March 7 notifying them the “landlord is terminating this lease and your tenancy in 30 days.” 

Sunset Lake Park resident Daniel Howard is one of about 100 residents who were told they had to leave the mobile home park.

Howard had lived in the mobile home park for 11 years. 

“I went from being a homeowner, to being homeless, that quick,” he said.

Howard said his only income he receives is from disability and social security. In...

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Our thoughts on this story:

When a private owner does this, they are publicly shamed as evil. When the City of Benton, Arkansas does this, it’s basically no problem. Love the double standard.

East Lansing Info: Housing Insecurity Worries Falcon Pointe Residents, East Lansing Planning Commissioners

  •    Originally released by East Lansing Info on April 18th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

When they finally got to the vote on the newest proposal for the seven-acre central area of Falcon Pointe – a housing development on the city’s north side that didn’t turn out as originally planned – East Lansing’s Planning Commission voted 4-0 to recommend the proposal to City Council. The latest proposal, to construct four three-unit rental dwellings fits East Lansing’s zoning law, and the commission is supposed to adhere closely to that question in their deliberations.

But the vote to recommend the proposal didn’t come without planning commissioners hearing from and responding sympathetically to present residents of the community about...

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Our thoughts on this story:

When you are an early-stage buyer into any planned development, you always run the risk of the plans being altered. There’s not a thing the council to do to solve this situation and giving false hope to the residents that bought into the concept early is only going to lead to further disappointment.

Robb Report: Home Renovations Now Take 250% Longer Than They Did in 2019

  •    Originally released by Robb Report on April 14th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

During the pandemic, many people took on home improvement projects while stuck inside. Now, some of those DIY skills might be coming in handy.

In general, renovations are taking 259 percent longer than they did in 2019, up from 22 days then to 79 days now, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Along with that, the costs of labor and materials have risen, and high demand has led to long wait times for construction to even start. As such, some go-getters have decided to take on the work themselves—to varying degrees of success.

“I think that going into this, we had the perception that we were very good DIYers,” Evan Moody told the WSJ. He...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Let’s cut through the B.S. and get down to the facts. The reason it now takes 80 days to renovate a property instead of 29 pre-Covid is that nobody wants to work anymore. You see it all around you. Covid is long gone but nobody is returning to the job. When you give U.S. workers a 2-year snow day, they apparently never come back to school.

New York Post: Now’s your chance to live in America’s priciest trailer park

  •    Originally released by New York Post on April 18th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

Anyone interested in moving to this millionaire- mobile home-filled beach retreat are in luck.

Indeed, an exclusive Malibu, California neighborhood — which is actually a trailer park — currently has two live listings within its high-priced, celebrity-filled grounds. 

Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park may not sound like an elite, star-studded locale — but recent years have been boom time for the once-blue collar community, and today it’s considered to be America’s priciest trailer park. 

“You’ve got to have a lot of cash to be buying in there these days,” Coldwell Banker Realty agent Brian Merrick told the Wall Street Journal. “The ones that...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Not to offend anyone, but you kind of have to be insane to pay $4 million plus $2,500 per month in lot rent to live in a mobile home park – even if it’s in Malibu. You could spend $4 million without lot rent to get a tremendous oceanside brick house in just about every other beach town in the U.S. I get a call about once a year from somebody looking at buying one of these mobile homes in Paradise Cove, and they want to know what happens if they lose their lease for the lot. I explain to them that the mobile home they just bought for $4 million would be worth about $4,000 as a 1970s trailer on a sales lot along the freeway. On the Sam Zell “risk vs. reward” index I can’t understand any of this. But then again, I’m not a Californian.

RV Travel: RVers leaving RV parks behind, saying they don’t want to pay for ‘amenities’ or ‘folks just stopping by to say hi’

  •    Originally released by RV Travel on April 14th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

RV sales have slowed and fewer people are buying RVs than has been the recent trend. Has that changed campground crowding? Is it easier to find a campsite now, particularly in state and national parks? Campgrounds are changing and evolving, some for the better and some for the worse. RV Travel readers discuss their experiences and offer a few tips to help other campers find that perfect spot.

Here are a few observations from our readers.

Full-timers are the cause

Mariane B. sees full-time RVers at fault for crowding. She explains, “Camping used to be something you did on vacation or a long weekend, not year around with all the amenities...

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Our thoughts on this story:

I know it’s a free country, but whoever wrote this article is pretty much wrong about everything. No, people don’t prefer to live in properties that have no amenities or luxuries of any type. No, people don’t dream of building their own RV from scratch by mounting assorted crap on a suburban. No, most people with kids have no interest in raising their family in a tiny travel trailer. No, most RV owners do not live in poverty. No, they should not give media space to people who write articles that basically insult the intelligence of all known forms of life.

Hickory Daily Record: Commissioners reject manufactured home park near Conover, OK incentives for spec building

  •    Originally released by Hickory Daily Record on April 18th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

The Catawba County Board of Commissioners unanimously rejected a rezoning request for a manufactured home park during their meeting Monday.

Skadoosh Properties asked the commissioners to rezone 31 acres at the end of Bush Drive near Conover from R-40 Residential to Manufactured Home Park for the purpose of building up to 74 manufactured homes at the site.

The Catawba County Planning Board was unanimously against the proposal for rezoning. They cited concerns about the septic system, runoff from the project and the ability of emergency services to respond effectively given the number of homes and the fact there is only one road...

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Our thoughts on this story:

“If I were to come home and I would look over there and see a mobile home park on that hill, I would not want to stay there,” resident James Travis told the commissioners. And that was the end of it, as the council voted “no” on rezoning the land to mobile home park. And James Travis’ thoughts are echoed across America when the idea of building a new mobile home park comes up. That’s why the concept of building new mobile home parks as an investment never works. By the time you find a piece of land so far out in the county that nobody complains about a mobile home park, there’s no demand to rent the lots or buy the homes.

Prince George Citizen: Proposed modular home park in Hart rejected

  •    Originally released by Prince George Citizen on April 13th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 21st, 2023

Preview:

On Wednesday night, city council defeated a proposed rezoning bylaw to facilitate the development of a modular home park on Twinberry Drive in the Hart.

Westcan Property Ltd. was seeking to rezone 11 hectares (27 acres) of the 52.4 ha. property at 9153 Twinberry Dr. to facilitate a new modular home park. Under the proposed zoning, a maximum of 220 mobile homes would be allowed on the 11 ha. area.

City council approved the first two readings of the rezoning on March 27, but rejected third reading of the bylaw on Wednesday. City council received 18 letters and emails from area residents opposed to the proposed development, one raising...

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Our thoughts on this story:

OK, let me decipher this for you. When they said “the city council received 18 letters and emails from area residents opposed to the proposed development, one raising concerns and six in support” what they really meant was they received 18 letters opposed from the actual neighbors, one raising concerns that lives about a block away and six in support that actually worked for the developer and mobile home sales lot.

The Dispatch: Tenants to be displaced when trailer park closes next year

  •    Originally released by The Dispatch on April 10th, 2023
  •    Commentary made on April 14th, 2023

Preview:

MIDWAY — More than 35 families and individuals living in a long-established mobile home park in Midway will have to find a new place to live in the coming months because the park is preparing to close next year.

Tenants of Shoaf’s Country Estates off of Norman Shoaf Road in northern Davidson County were notified in March that the mobile home park will close in 2024, and they have to make arrangements to have their homes moved.

Lindley White, manager of Shoaf’s Country Estates, said that the decision to close the park was not made easily. White is married to Liz Shoaf White, who is a co-owner with her brother, Todd Shoaf.

“We had to come...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Interesting how the media hates mobile home parks when they’re operating – delighting in publicly shaming the owners -- and then suddenly misses them when they’re closing. You can’t have it both ways.