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CLASH OF CLASSES OVER BEACH PLAN
Rezoning proposal in Fairview Beach draws a line in the sand between trailer-park residents and those in nicer homes
Date published: 6/28/2009
BY CATHY DYSON On paper, the proposal to build 60 townhouses at Fairview Beach looks like a rezoning issue, a matter for King George County officials to decide. Yet as citizens speak out about the plan to replace a trailer park and campground with $500,000 homes, the debate sounds like an issue between the haves and the have-nots. "They keep calling us trailer trash, and I mean, we're not perfect by any means, but that's kinda hurtful," said Marie Bennett, who has lived in the trailer park for three years. "It would be nice if we could all have the things they have, but we can't all have that stuff." Among those with prime property in Fairview Beach is Jerry Puckett. His family-owned construction company has a home and 33 acres valued at $719,200, according to onlineGIS.net. During a June 16 public hearing about the rezoning, Puckett asked the supervisors to get rid of the trailers--and what he described as ongoing problems with drugs, crime and alcohol. Many of the more than 50 Fairview Beach residents in the audience applauded after he spoke. "The trailer park is a cesspool and an eyesore, and something needs to be done with it," Puckett said. The King George supervisors agreed to wait until July 21 to deal with the rezoning proposal. SOURCE OF ALL PROBLEMS? All some people may know about Fairview Beach is that it is on the Potomac River and has had high levels of bacteria in the water in recent years. Thirteen times since 2007, the Virginia Department of Health has posted signs advising people to stay out the water. Warnings went up again on Tuesday and were in effect until Thursday. An investigation and Virginia Tech study in 2007 labeled the trailer park as the source of the problem. There were leaking septic tanks among the 30 mobile homes, and a leaking sewer pipe next to a storm drain. Fairview B LLC, a Northern Virginia partnership that has owned the trailer park for about seven years, has fixed every broken or leaky pipe the state or county has identified, said spokesman Bob Moesle. It is also paying for 12 trailers that hooked into the county system illegally
Date published: 6/28/2009
I feel for the trailer owners.
(posted by
tuggboat
, June 28, 2009 9:26 pm)
If the land is owned privately they should be able to honor
their contracts and then sell the property or develop it as
they see fit. The people in the trailers have long known that
hey live in a beautiful spot and I am sure they have
honored that spot It will be sad to see them replaced by the
rich but unfortunately that is how the cookie crumbles.
Welcome to the free market.
Continued: FVB Resident.
(posted by
CaseyLou8
, June 28, 2009 8:53 pm)
I am a personal friend of the woman in the picture of the article, Her yard is the best yard I've seen. She has beautiful flowers and her husband is out everyday making sure that his yard looks nice. He's a bit of a clean freak if you ask me. We are up standing residents that just want to live there a be happy. I think that the townhouses will end up just sitting there and not get sold. If they do, the Village will look bad. Thanks!! I love where I live, dont run us out! Some of us are just like family
Resident of FVB
(posted by
CaseyLou8
, June 28, 2009 8:47 pm)
I live in a trailer in Fairview and I think that People are critisizing us for no reason. There was no mention about the Bar that is on the water.....Thats where he alcohol is coming from....It would still be the same even if townhouses are built. As for crime, not so much. Drugs, well i've definitly heard rumors but never seen any. Puckett does even live in the Park. He lives in a house up the streets..He shouldn't judge us. We are people just trying to have a roof over our heads. Continue in new post
Hey Sherlock!!....
(posted by
johnnydiego
, June 28, 2009 6:58 pm)
Ummmm...am i the only one who gets that if a bacteria problem or an algea bloom that forms off the shores of the area, which mind you is a river that most of the time is flowing out to sea with the breif exception of the tiddel change, that it stands to reason that the problem would be located up stream from the community, and flowing down stream as physics would dictate? Now i'm sure if someone wanted them out bad enough, they would say that our nations economy hinges on throwing thoes poor people out.
Giving back!!
(posted by
johnnydiego
, June 28, 2009 6:38 pm)
We all have heard the term "Giving back to our communities" and i am a big addvocate of that. But far to often i find that those with little more than them selves to give, give more than those who have much to offer, yet do little to nothing. Any one of those people who live in the park in question would probaly invite those with alot, to share what little they have to offer, and yet those same people seek to take what little they have left so that they could have more.Let them be. Give Back!
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