Mobile Home Park

Mobile-home park residents in Howard County have a better chance of buying the land under their homes rather than be evicted for redevelopment, in the wake of a unanimous vote by the local delegation to the General Assembly. Despite last-minute questions by an attorney for the Deep Run Mobile Home Park in Elkridge, the legislators voted Wednesday to approve a bill that would give park residents a right of first refusal if a park owner decides to sell. Park residents typically own their homes, but not the lots on which the homes sit. The vote came during the county delegation's weekly meeting in Annapolis.

Rose Madison, who has lived in the same place for 41 years, must start over soon at age 64. The land is being pulled from underneath her house. It is an increasingly common story in Maryland, where mobile-home parks are being converted to more immediately profitable developments, from stores to upscale subdivisions. Manufactured housing is very often the most affordable way to live in this expensive state, but there are fewer and fewer places to put it. Rising land values encourage different uses.

State police charged a Carroll County man early yesterday morning with killing his mother in her Finksburg mobile home, the county's second homicide this year. Eric R. Yates, 39, was charged with murder in the death of his mother, Christine R. Windstein, 57, of the first block of E. Mayer Drive in the Todd Village Mobile Home Park. The suspect lived with his mother. Windstein's body was discovered Friday night after a neighbor became concerned after not seeing her for days. The killing came as a shock for residents of the mobile home park just off Route 140. With two homicides or fewer reported each year in Carroll County, residents are not accustomed to such violent crime.

Howard County's state legislators are pondering emotional appeals from homeowners at both ends of the economic spectrum as mobile home park residents along U.S. 1 organize to prevent displacement while upscale western county seniors beset with sewage problems seek protections for future projects. The homeowners turned out at an Ellicott City hearing held by legislators Thursday night, as did advocates and critics of using cameras to catch speeding motorists. They previewed some of the arguments the county's eight delegates and three state senators will consider before voting on local legislation in the 90-day General Assembly session that begins in January.

The move was supposed to be only temporary -- just enough time for Laura Tucker and her family to save money and get back on their feet.When she moved into a mobile home just off U.S. 1 in North Laurel in 1983, she didn't imagine that 16 years later she would still be stuck there."

The discovery of a pipe bomb led to the evacuation of more than 40 trailers in a mobile home park in Edgewood yesterday afternoon, state police reported.Gary Capello told police he discovered a plastic garbage bag containing the homemade explosive device while mowing his lawn at the Bauers Mobile Home Park about 3 p.m., authorities said.State police bomb technicians defused it shortly before 6 p.m., and the residents were allowed to return. The incident remained under investigation last night.

The Maryland Aviation Administration can close a mobile home park, relocate the residents and compensate the landowners so that a runway can be added to BWI Airport, an Anne Arundel County judge ruled Friday.Circuit Court Judge Eugene M. Lerner condemned the property, just west of the bustling airport, setting the stage for the real battle: how much the state should pay property owners Symcha and Joan Frances Shpak for ending residential use of the land.No court date has been set for that hearing.

Residents of a North Laurel mobile home community are expressing outrage that they did not know that a 71-year-old male neighbor -- arrested last week and charged with fondling three young girls -- had been convicted of a similar sexual offense five years ago.The residents voiced their anger at a Monday night meeting called by county police after the April 29 arrest of John Herman Dennison, who has been charged with three counts of third- and fourth-degree sex...

The Howard County Planning Board approved the reclassification yesterday of 14 acres for the expansion of the Pfister Mobile Home Park in Laurel.The board also recommended that the Board of Appeals approve a special exception that would allow a 6,000-square-foot fast-food restaurant and Exxon gas station at Gorman Road and U.S. 1.Shirley Pfister said that having the additional 14 acres would allow her and her husband, Paul, to consider adding another 20...

Prospects for a new runway at BWI Airport were debated yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court at a hearing on a lawsuit filed by the Maryland Aviation Administration to take control -- at least temporarily -- of a nearby mobile home park and move its residents.The site was added to the airport's noise zone in 1993, making residents eligible for government assistance in relocating. But the longtime owners of the property, Symcha and Joan Shpak, have refused a state offer to buy a needed easement to end residential use there.

Chemical odor sickens 18 at middle school 1 A Glen Burnie middle school was evacuated and 18 children were taken to hospitals after staff detected a strong chemical odor just as school started Wednesday morning, according to an Anne Arundel County schools spokesman. Employees at Corkran Middle School noticed the smell about 8 a.m., said Bob Mosier, the spokesman. The school is undergoing renovations, and workers making heating, ventilating and air-conditioning repairs on the roof were using a petroleum-based aluminum coating that is believed to have caused the odor, he said.

Amy Lamke and her daughter live in a mobile home in the Deep Run Mobile Home Park in Elkridge. Lamke owns the home, but not the land on which it sits. And that worries her. Lamke has appealed for help from Howard's state legislators, telling them how devastating it would be if Deep Run were to close or be sold for redevelopment, as was done at the former Aladdin Mobile Home Park nearby. "I have a nagging fear that I'll open a letter and see the land has been sold," she said at a recent delegation hearing.

One sensitive bill that met a mysterious death in the last General Assembly session is not scheduled for a second appearance before the county's state legislators at their annual public hearing Tuesday. But the underlying issue has not gone away. Mobile home park residents along the U.S. 1 corridor are hoping a church-based community organizing group can persuade Gov. Martin O'Malley to back a statewide bill to give them the first chance to buy the land their homes occupy if a park owner decides to sell for redevelopment.

Advocates for Howard County mobile home park residents are renewing a push for a law that would give them the first chance to buy the land under their homes if a sale is imminent. The leaders of People Acting Together in Howard, a church-based community organizing group affiliated with the BUILD coalition in Baltimore, are preparing to meet Monday with Gov. Martin O'Malley to get his support for a possible statewide bill in next year's General Assembly session. Higher land values are pushing park owners across the country to sell their land to developers, displacing hundreds of working people with modest incomes and retirees who for years have enjoyed spacious, affordable homes on lots they rent.

Bills allowing speed cameras and mobile home park residents the right to buy the land under their homes before a park is sold failed to win General Assembly approval before the 90-day session ended Monday night. The two bills represented the biggest issues local legislators faced this year, but they weren't the only local bills approved by the county delegation that failed to be enacted. A third measure offering liability protection, enjoyed by county government, to the new Howard County Revenue Authority under a self-insurance program also failed.

Mobile-home park residents in Howard County have a better chance of buying the land under their homes rather than be evicted for redevelopment, in the wake of a unanimous vote by the local delegation to the General Assembly. Despite last-minute questions by an attorney for the Deep Run Mobile Home Park in Elkridge, the legislators voted Wednesday to approve a bill that would give park residents a right of first refusal if a park owner decides to sell. Park residents typically own their homes, but not the lots on which the homes sit. The vote came during the county delegation's weekly meeting in Annapolis.

Speeders are facing bad news, while mobile home park residents are cheering the actions this week of Howard County's General Assembly contingent. The county's 11 state legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill to authorize county police to use automated speed cameras to issue $75 tickets on county roads with limits of 45 mph or less. Because the bill applies only to Howard County, it is likely to be approved by the full General Assembly, especially because the legislature approved a similar bill for Montgomery County last year.

Howard County's state legislators are pondering emotional appeals from homeowners at both ends of the economic spectrum as mobile home park residents along U.S. 1 organize to prevent displacement while upscale western county seniors beset with sewage problems seek protections for future projects. The homeowners turned out at an Ellicott City hearing held by legislators Thursday night, as did advocates and critics of using cameras to catch speeding motorists. They previewed some of the arguments the county's eight delegates and three state senators will consider before voting on local legislation in the 90-day General Assembly session that begins in January.

State police charged a Carroll County man early yesterday morning with killing his mother in her Finksburg mobile home, the county's second homicide this year. Eric R. Yates, 39, was charged with murder in the death of his mother, Christine R. Windstein, 57, of the first block of E. Mayer Drive in the Todd Village Mobile Home Park. The suspect lived with his mother. Windstein's body was discovered Friday night after a neighbor became concerned after not seeing her for days. The killing came as a shock for residents of the mobile home park just off Route 140. With two homicides or fewer reported each year in Carroll County, residents are not accustomed to such violent crime.

Rev your engines for another debate on whether Howard County officials should have the authority to use cameras to catch speeders in residential areas. The tickets would cost $75, with the proceeds used for public safety programs. Among the dozen local bills submitted for the General Assembly session that starts in January, that measure is likely to spark heated discussion. It is sponsored by state Sen. James N. Robey, a Democrat who is a former county executive and a former police chief.