Mobile Home Park

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.

Reading about the purchase and forthcoming closing of Beechcrest Mobile Home in North Laurel, I felt empathy for the residents. It's always difficult to have to leave your home, and when you're given no choice, or forewarning, I would guess it's even harder. Probably the members of the Howard County Commission had their hearts in the right place, by purchasing the Beechcrest park and planning on building housing for the homeless on the land. However, the uprooted residents of Beechcrest, should've been given more consideration.

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.

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.

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...

A mobile home park's owner is going to Anne Arundel Circuit Court after the county Board of Appeals threw out his licensing case because he missed a deadline.Symcha Shpak, who owns the Ridgewood Mobile Home Park, has been operating without a county permit since 1989, said Robert M. Pollock, assistant county attorney.County health officials have refused to approve the license, citing health code violations such as the owner letting poison ivy grow in a common area and operating without a license, while some tenants allowed animal waste and trash to accumulate in their yards.

Anne Arundel County has filed suit to force the owners of a 150-unit mobile home park to clean up their property or face contempt charges.Ridgewood Mobile Home Park, owned by Symcha and Joan Shpak, hasn't had a license since 1989, said Robert M. Pollock, assistant county attorney.Health department officials have refused to approve the license, citing numerous health code violations.The lawsuit, filed last week, asks the county Circuit Court to order the Shpaks, who live in Neavitt on the Eastern Shore, to meet health codes or face contempt charges.

The Maryland Aviation Administration filed suit Wednesday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court against the owners of a Hanover mobile-home park as part of its program to move residents away from the roar of jets.The MAA wants to close the mobile-home park and move about 150 residents out of the noise zone, land around the Baltimore-Washington International Airport deemed too noisy for homes. The park is on 17 of 72 acres off Ridge Road owned by Symcha and Joan Shpak.The suit was filed after the Shpaks turned down the aviation agency's offer to buy a perpetual easement that would prevent future residential use, but allow warehouse and other light industrial uses for which the land is zoned.

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.

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.

In Howard County, one of the most affluent counties in America, finding an affordable place to live is a serious challenge for moderate-income families. One answer has been mobile home parks, including a number clustered along Route 1 on the eastern side of the county. Now, there's a legislative proposal to make mobile home living in Howard and elsewhere in Maryland more secure, and it's worthy of support. While mobile home parks offer a sense of community and an affordable place to live, there are fewer of them in Maryland as park owners see the value in selling the sites to developers.

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.

The Maryland Aviation Administration plans to buy a mobile home park in Harmans where residents have complained for years of the noise from jets at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.But it could be five years before the residents move.State officials must come up with more than $6 million in federal grants, figure out what to do with the 150 families living at the Ridgewood Mobile Home Park off Ridge Road and certify a new noise zone -- land around the airport deemed too noisy for people to live.

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.