Mobile home park residents told to move

Tina Ray

Aug. 15, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- HOPE MILLS -- Many residents in the Helendale Mobile Home Park on Elk Park Drive have been asked to move from their homes, with some indication that a Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) Home Improvement Warehouse is planned for the site.

The mobile home park, which has an appraised tax value of more than $1 million, sits next to an Arby's restaurant that opened in July, and down North Main Street from Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) SuperCenter.

According to the Cumberland County Planning Department, an e-mail inquiry about zoning requirements for the construction of a Lowe's has been submitted. Paperwork to rezone the land was submitted to the planning board Aug. 12.

Residents were issued notices to move dated Aug. 8. The notices give them until Oct. 11, less than 60 days, to vacate their rental homes or to find somewhere to take the homes they own. Residents are still being asked to pay the $150 a month lot rent.

Tax records show there are 140 addresses in the mobile home park. The landowners of many of the lots have been identified as Vance and Wanda Blanton. Wanda's son, Dennis Blanton, helps to manage the property, and according to some homeowners, is the person who distributed the moving notices.

Dennis Blanton refused comment, saying the matter was "private."

Many of the residents are fixed-income, disabled homeowners and renters who do not have the money required to move.

Traffic into and out of the mobile home park remained busy this morning as residents packed to move.

Moving becomes a complicated process for trailer owners whose homes were built prior to 1976. Cumberland County does not allow the transport of those homes.

Hazel Strickland has lived in Helendale Mobile Home Park for 22 to 23 years. She owns her home, built in 1976.

The 77-year-old lives on her deceased husband's social security. She said she paid $4,000 to buy a newer model home that could be moved.

The blue-green singlewide home that she has lived in for more than 20 years will be crushed, she said.

"I wasn't expecting to move," Strickland said. "It's been hard because I've been sick. I've had heart surgery and everything else."

Her daughter, Judy Hales, has helped her empty the old mobile home.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0072-27450036