ASHEVILLE — The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners turned down a request to rezone 4.4 acres in Reynolds on a 4-0 vote Tuesday.

The change would have allowed mobile homes on the property at 218 and 266 Bee Ridge Road and potentially some other uses.

Several neighbors objected to the request by Kashka DeBruhl-Cawthorn, saying the change would harm the character of the neighborhood.

?Our community is a mix,? said John Scroggs, but is made up of ?primarily single-family homes, many on large tracts of land.?

A five-unit mobile home park, allowed because it was in existence when zoning was enacted, already sits on part of the property. Some residents said it is unattractive.

?We?re proud of our valley,? said Jack Sorrells, who said his family settled there in the 1850s. ?We just don?t think that we need any further problems.?

?Citizens in our community worked very hard to get the zoning in place? and it should be respected, neighbor Charles Powell said.

Members of DeBruhl-Cawthorn?s family said they supported the request so that she could live among them.

Other types of homes would be significantly more expensive, mother Debbie DeBruhl said.

Sister Katrina DeBruhl-Covan said an electrical substation and three double-wide mobile homes already sit near the property.

Joe Belcher, a regional manager for mobile home maker Clayton Homes, told the board the disagreement illustrates a problem with the county zoning ordinance.

?We have a family that wants to provide for a child. There should be a way to provide for that,? he said.

Commissioners K. Ray Bailey and Holly Jones said afterward that more mobile homes would not be a good fit for the neighborhood.

Kashka-DeBruhl asked for a change from the county?s R-2 zoning district to R-3. The change would have allowed individual mobile homes without further zoning action by the county. It also would have opened the door to other uses, like mobile home parks, communications towers and a vacation rental complex, if certain conditions were met.

Commissioner Bill Stanley was absent because he was attending a meeting of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners.

The rest is here:
Buncombe commissioners turn down rezoning request in Asheville suburb

BEMIDJI (WCCO) — Six dogs rescued from two Bemidji mobile homes in late January are now ready for a new home, but there are still several others that need a lot of attention before they can get a new place to live.

These dogs are being helped at the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, and others are being helped by foster families in the Twin Cities through Pet Haven, Inc.

Now, volunteers are trying to turn fearful dogs into playful pups.

It’s been a big adjustment for a little guy, named Moe, who volunteer Laura Geib is working with at the Animal Humane Society.

“This is all new. A very scary time for him, but he’s coming around fast,” said Geib.

Moe is shy. He’s fearful of people, just like the other 100 dogs that were taken from the Bemidji mobile homes. These dogs lived in a pack and didn’t get to interact with people.

Police called their living conditions “very bad” and the amount of dogs “unbelievable.”

The dogs’ female owners were evaluated for their medical conditions, and their homes were condemned.

“I’m just going to gradually pet up to the top of the head, up to the ears, down to the barrel of the body,” said Geib.

Geib wants Moe to get used to her touch, her smell, and the simple act of someone else around.

After three weeks, Moe and a handful of other dogs are responding well in the shelter, but three dozen other animals need additional work, more long-term care.

There are dogs like Diamond. She’s now living with Youa and her boyfriend, Nick, in their Twin Cities apartment. They’ve become Diamond’s foster parents.

“She doesn’t really know how to play yet. We’re teaching her how to be more comfortable,” said Youa.

Diamond needs constant contact, in a much calmer environment than the shelter, away from other dogs and numerous distractions.

“She’s very shy! Shey’s shy at first. There are moments with us.. she’ll go and hide and peak her head out and observe everything,” said Youa.

The couple is giving Diamond individual attention, but they know soon, she’ll be ready to venture into a new home, a permanent one.

“So yes, great experience over all,” said Youa.

It’ll be another week before Diamond goes to her new home and Moe gets adopted too.

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Hope For Neglected Dogs Taken From Bemidji Homes

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By Jake Frankel on 02/21/2012 07:46 PM

Pictured: A Reynolds resident showed the commissioners photos of the Bee Ridge Road neighborhood and urged the board not to allow more mobile homes in the area. Photo by Max Cooper.

Here's a list of highlights from the Feb. 21 meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. Xpress will have a full report in the Feb. 29 issue.

• The board voted 4-0 (Vice Chair Bill Stanley was absent) to deny a rezoning request that would've allowed mobile homes on a 4.45 acre parcel along Bee Ridge Road in Reynolds. The Buncombe County Planning Department recommended approving the request, noting that an adjacent area already contains mobile homes. However, the Planning Board voted 4–3 to recommend denying the request, arguing the change wouldn't be consistent with the county's land use plan or in the interest of adjacent neighbors. During a public hearing on the matter, the majority of speakers urged the commissioners to deny the request, saying allowing more mobile homes in the area would hurt property values and create other problems for the neighborhood.

• Commissioners voted unanimously to allocate $50,000 in county taxpayer money to help fund the Go Kitchen–Ready Training Program, which aims to prepare local residents for work in the food–service industry.

• During the meeting's public comment session, Dr. Milton Byrd announced that he's going to try to unseat incumbent Board Chair David Gantt by running against him in the May 8 Democratic primary. Byrd previously served on the Fletcher Town Council. Over the last year, he has frequently criticized Buncombe commissioners for the way they handled county funding of the WNC Media Center, which closed it's doors in May. After the meeting, the retired Barnardsville resident told Xpress that although he has “a lot of respect for Gantt,” he feels “the public trust has been fractured.” Byrd said a top priority of his as board chair would be better communication with residents to rebuild that trust. “People are scared of politics. … Gantt isn't in a position to bring balance like I can,” he said. “I'm a win–win leader. I don't play dirty politics.”

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Buncombe Commissioners vote ‘no’ on mobile homes; Byrd challenges Gantt for board chair

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By Jake Frankel on 02/20/2012 05:02 PM

Topping the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners' Feb. 21 agenda is a rezoning request to allow more development of a 4.45-acre parcel along Bee Ridge Road in Reynolds.

Land owner Kashka DeBruhl–Cawthorn requested the change from R–2 to R–3 zoning, which would allow mobile homes and make it easier for further developments such as vacation rentals and communications towers. The tract is near Bee Ridge's intersection with Barger Road.

The Buncombe County Planning Department recommends approving the request, noting that the surrounding area already contains mobile homes. However, the Planning Board voted 4–3 to recommend denying the request, arguing the change wouldn't be consistent with the county's land-use plan or in the interest of adjacent neighbors.

In other business, the commissioners will consider giving $50,000 in county taxpayer money to help fund the Go Kitchen-Ready Training Program, which aims to help prepare local residents for work in the food-service industry.

The board will meet at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the commissioners' chambers, located at 30 Valley St. A short pre-meeting review of the agenda will begin at 4:15 p.m.

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Read more from the original source:
Buncombe commissioners preview: More mobile homes coming to Reynolds?

Town Meeting has approved rent control for mobile home parks. Monday’s special meeting created a bylaw and a control board, but the moves do not take effect until the state Legislature passes a home-rule bill authorizing it. The actions came after a rent increase of more than 30 percent at the town’s only mobile home park. The meeting also approved $85,000 for an emergency generator for Town Hall, $118,000 for police overtime and part-time dispatchers, and $110,000 to study sewer expansion. Voters also approved easements to the Olmsted, Richardson, Parkview, and middle schools as part of the Safe Routes to School Program. The town already owns the land, on which walkways would be built.

– Steve Hatch

© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company.

Read more here:
Rent control for mobile homes

By Gregory Phillips
Staff writer

HOPE MILLS – The abandoned and dilapidated mobile homes in Colonial Heights took Charles Evans by surprise.

“You've got some of these trailers out here (that) are older than I am,” said the 51-year-old Cumberland County commissioner. “It's crazy.”

The unincorporated neighborhood that straddles South Main Street just outside the Hope Mills town limits is a mix of primly maintained properties and rundown mobile homes, some of them literally falling to pieces.

Members of the Colonial Heights Community Watch called Evans because they say the county is not doing enough to clamp down on the crumbling properties that attract crime. Evans said he wants to help by pushing for tighter restrictions or stricter enforcement. There are only two full-time code enforcement officers covering about 48,500 homes across the county.

Donna McMahon moved to Colonial Heights from New York a year ago and now leads the Community Watch.

“There's some very, very good people in this neighborhood,” she said.

But, she added, there are also “some slumlords who just haul trailers around.”

When an elderly resident died, the woman's son sold the property, which was soon the site of three mobile homes instead of one, McMahon said.

“We become kind of the perimeter dumping ground,” said Sheri McGean, McMahon's sister.

The concerns at Colonial Heights are not new, nor are they unique. Neglected and abandoned mobile homes can be found in unincorporated neighborhoods along Camden, Cumberland, Sapona, Cedar Creek and Blacks Bridge roads, said Debbie Tanna, a spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, which patrols the areas.

“We answer all the calls,” Tanna said. “We can't be in that neighborhood 24-7.”

The Sheriff's Office also has a nuisance abatement officer who works with county inspectors to tackle homes that are not up to code, Tanna said. Homeowners and landlords are given the opportunity to bring their properties up to standard.

But it can be difficult to track down absent landlords, said George Hatcher, the county's chief code enforcement officer.

“We don't proactively patrol neighborhoods,” Hatcher said. “We're complaint-driven, so if we don't get a complaint, we probably won't know about it unless I'm addressing something right down the street from it.”

Tom Lloyd, the county planning director, said environmental health and zoning inspectors have combed through Colonial Heights in the past but found no violations.

“If there are abandoned trailers out there and they call, we'll go ahead and condemn them,” Lloyd said. “But at the times we went out there, there weren't.”

Evans said he's not sure if the solution is tighter regulations or more enforcement, but he said he plans to raise the problem with his colleagues on the Board of Commissioners.

“It's horrendous out here,” he said. “These people are facing some grave issues.”

Staff writer Gregory Phillips can be reached at phillipsg@fayobserver.com or 486-3596.

Originally posted here:
Hope Mills Community Watch group wants rundown mobile homes removed

Video Photos

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JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue works the scene of a brush fire at 4810 Foxye Lane in Riverview Wednesday afternoon.

JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office helicopter drops water on a brush fire at 4810 Foxye Lane in Riverview Wednesday afternoon.

JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office helicopter uses a nearby pond to get water used to drop on a brush fire at 4810 Foxye Lane in Riverview Wednesday afternoon.

By JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA | The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 15, 2012
Updated: February 16, 2012 – 12:12 AM

A 20-acre fire destroyed two mobile homes Wednesday afternoon in a Riverview neighborhood near Interstate 75 and U.S. 301.

There were no injuries in the 1 p.m. fire in the area of the 4800 block of Foxye Lane, but the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“We checked with our permits with the Florida Forest Service,” said Tommy Price, a forest ranger with the Florida Forest Service. “There is no permitted burns anywhere around here. Right now the cause of this fire is unknown.”

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane, said Ray Yeakley, a Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesman.

When firefighters arrived they found a large brush fire and two vacant mobile homes on fire, Yeakley said. The fire may have started in the mobile homes and spread to the field, he said.

Julie Burchfield was at a home on Foxye Lane with her cousin when they noticed something was wrong.

“All the electricity shut off,” Burchfield said. “And then we heard this big explosion. Then me and my cousin we went outside and we started seeing the smoke and that's when we called the fire department.”

Julie Burchfield and other residents in the area were evacuted. Julie Burchfield found her grandmother in the parking lot of a nearby business. Marilyn Burchfield couldn't get to her home because of the fire.

Firefighters rescued a dog and its three puppies at a home near the destroyed mobile homes.

Price said the crews worked well considering the conditions and the scale of the fire.

“I think we've done a really good job of getting in here and stopping it,” Price said. “The winds are kind of high today so obviously our priority is to stop the fire and then we'll go back and figure what started the fire.”

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue sent 20 trucks and 45 firefighters to the scene.

Some large electrical power lines were damaged by the fire.

Read more from the original source:
Brush fire rages, destroys 2 Riverview mobile homes

RIVERVIEW — Smoke from a lingering brush fire could combine with fog to create dangerous driving conditions overnight on Interstate 75 in southern Hillsborough County, authorities said Wednesday.

The county's emergency operations center said conditions could be ripe for “super fog” — with almost no visibility —in the hours around sunrise Thursday.

The Florida Highway Patrol, which temporarily closed the interstate Wednesday because of smoke from the fire, planned to monitor conditions, said spokesman Sgt. Steve Gaskins.

The fire had engulfed two vacant mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane when firefighters arrived around 1 p.m. By late Wednesday, the fire was mostly contained and the patrol reopened the only remaining closed roadway, the southbound entrance ramp from U.S. 301.

Read more:
Riverview brush fire spreads to two mobile homes

Video Photos

0 Ratings | 23 Video Views

Next Image > < Previous Image

JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JUDD CHAPIN/STAFF

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane.

JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue works the scene of a brush fire at 4810 Foxye Lane in Riverview Wednesday afternoon.

JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office helicopter drops water on a brush fire at 4810 Foxye Lane in Riverview Wednesday afternoon.

JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office helicopter uses a nearby pond to get water used to drop on a brush fire at 4810 Foxye Lane in Riverview Wednesday afternoon.

By JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA | The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 15, 2012
Updated: February 16, 2012 – 12:12 AM

A 20-acre fire destroyed two mobile homes Wednesday afternoon in a Riverview neighborhood near Interstate 75 and U.S. 301.

There were no injuries in the 1 p.m. fire in the area of the 4800 block of Foxye Lane, but the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“We checked with our permits with the Florida Forest Service,” said Tommy Price, a forest ranger with the Florida Forest Service. “There is no permitted burns anywhere around here. Right now the cause of this fire is unknown.”

Initial reports indicated the fire started as a controlled burn and spread to the mobile homes at 4810 Foxye Lane, said Ray Yeakley, a Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesman.

When firefighters arrived they found a large brush fire and two vacant mobile homes on fire, Yeakley said. The fire may have started in the mobile homes and spread to the field, he said.

Julie Burchfield was at a home on Foxye Lane with her cousin when they noticed something was wrong.

“All the electricity shut off,” Burchfield said. “And then we heard this big explosion. Then me and my cousin we went outside and we started seeing the smoke and that's when we called the fire department.”

Julie Burchfield and other residents in the area were evacuted. Julie Burchfield found her grandmother in the parking lot of a nearby business. Marilyn Burchfield couldn't get to her home because of the fire.

Firefighters rescued a dog and its three puppies at a home near the destroyed mobile homes.

Price said the crews worked well considering the conditions and the scale of the fire.

“I think we've done a really good job of getting in here and stopping it,” Price said. “The winds are kind of high today so obviously our priority is to stop the fire and then we'll go back and figure what started the fire.”

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue sent 20 trucks and 45 firefighters to the scene.

Some large electrical power lines were damaged by the fire.

Link:
Fire burns two mobile homes, field in Riverview

RIVERVIEW, Fla. – A brush fire has spread to at least two mobile homes near Foxye Lane at Foxworth Road in Riverview, east of the US 301/I-75 interchange.

The fire is 75% contained, according to officials.  At least 20 Fire Rescue units and 45 firefighters responded to control the fire, which had consumed less than 5 acres. 

The Florida Highway Patrol plans to control traffic movement in and around the area as smoke conditions change.

The two unoccupied mobile homes were consumed, and a couple of large electrical power lines were damaged.

There have been no injuries reported.

Officials now say they are not certain how the fire started.

Stay with abcactionnews.com as the story develops.

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Fire spreads to Riverview mobile homes