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Fairview Beach trailer park resident Dorothy Smith (with grandson Benjamin) is worried about having to move.
A proposal to build townhouses in Fairview Beach is pitting owners
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Wyatt Durrer, Janet Sedwick, Gretta Stoneburger and David Green (from left) say they want to see the trailer park cleaned up, but would feel bad if residents were forced out.
Mullen |
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
Even though the sewage problems were fixed at the trailer park, bacteria continue to find their way into the river. Moesle said he wouldn't be surprised if the trailer park is still the source, but at this point he doesn't know where additional problems are.
Neither do officials. A manager with the Rappahannock Area Health District said earlier this month that he doesn't know where else to look.
At least one Fairview Beach resident believes sewage problems will be eliminated if the trailer park goes.
At the public hearing, Tom Schoedel told the supervisors his son was suffering from infections in both ears. He had gone swimming in early June before his family realized there were bacteria in the water again.
"If for no other reason than this, something needs to be done there," Schoedel said.
Other residents, such as Debra Nogrady, see the townhouse development as "a good investment for King George."
Moesle estimates it would generate a net gain of at least $30,000 a year in property taxes and transfer fees.
'NOWHERE TO GO'
Moesle's company isn't interested in investing more money in old trailers. That's why it wants to build new townhouses on the 9.3-acre property.
Waterfront homes, with almost 2,000 square feet of floor space and two-car garages, would cost half a million dollars, he said. Others in the development would be about $400,000, under the proposal Moesle has revised a few times at the request of county officials.
Meanwhile, trailer tenants pay him $350 to $600 a month, depending on how close they are to the water, and Moesle's company pays for electricity and water and sewer--including back payments for illegal hookups.
"We don't net $100 a trailer a month," Moesle said.
Some of those who live in the mobile homes say they don't know where they would find another affordable place to live.
"You can't just up and move with nowhere to go and the economy like it is," said Dorothy Smith, who has been there almost five years. "I'm happy here. My grandchildren are happy here. I don't want to leave."
Even those who do want to live elsewhere lack the resources.
"I would dearly love to leave the area," said Theresa Lamb, "but when you have a limited income, you can't spend thousands of dollars to uproot your trailer."
A MIX OF OLD AND NEW
Fairview Drive is the one and only road into the beach. The trailer park is at the bottom of the drive, on the left side near the Shore Store and Tim's II Restaurant, in the area where there used to be a bathhouse. Campers and trailers appeared at the beach about five or 10 years after houses did, said resident Janet Harrover.
Homeowners who support the rezoning are on the right side of Fairview Drive. The community stretches over 12 streets, and there's a mix among the 300 homes, about 75 percent of which are occupied year-round, said Tom Hudson, president of the residents association.
Bungalows and cottages date back to the 1930s, when the first six streets were developed.
Some of these smaller places are valued at slightly more than $100,000, according to onlineGIS.net, and are owned by retired residents on fixed incomes.
There also are three-story houses, like those popular at other beach resorts. Homes in Grandview Estates on the Potomac, a new subdivision on the hill above the village, are valued at half a million dollars--or more. Many are second homes, Hudson said, and were built in recent years.
Outsiders may look at the grand places and believe everyone at Fairview Beach can afford homes of that scale, one resident told the supervisors.
"There's a great misconception that Fairview Beach is nothing but wealthy people," Nogrady said. "Frankly, it's a working-class community."
Hudson has watched the beach change since he and his family started coming to their summer home in 1968. When his kids were younger, the family water-skied every chance it got.
"We used to live in the water, when we didn't know any better," said Hudson, a retired government worker whose other home is in Spotsylvania County.
These days, his family doesn't boat much because of the crowds. Fairview Beach is one of a handful of access points to the Potomac in the region, and on weekends there may be as many as 1,000 boats in the water, Hudson said.
"When the signs are posted [against swimming], the residents stay out of the water," Hudson said, "but the boaters, they don't care."
Hudson supports the rezoning because he believes townhouses would be better for the community.
He believes the speakers who addressed the supervisors were of the same mind--and were not making a personal attack on trailer park residents.
So does Leesa Shrewsbury, a beach resident who manages the trailer park, where her son and stepbrother live.
"I don't think any of us went there with the intention of saying we look down at any one of them who lives in the trailer park," she said.
'FOCUS ON THE ISSUE'
That's not how Cedell Brooks Jr., Shiloh District supervisor, saw it. When it was the supervisors' turn to comment, he blasted those who criticized mobile-home residents.
"Stop belittling people because they live in a trailer and not a big home on the hill, like some of you," he said. "Maybe you should be helping these folks who don't have, rather than running around, having your little parties and picnics."
Brooks said he wouldn't support the rezoning.
Two others--Dale Sisson and James Howard--suggested they would, even though county staff and Planning Commission members recommended that the rezoning be denied.
Sisson and Howard, whose district includes Fairview Beach, said they believe the proposal fits the comprehensive plan because the area around the trailer park is considered a high-density settlement area.
But Supervisor Joe Grzeika had concerns about proffers. The plan mentioned sidewalks and trails, but he didn't see any in the drawings. Moesle offered to give trailer park residents $1,000 and a year to move, and Grzeika wondered if that offer was legally binding.
Grzeika and Howard both had concerns about VDOT issues about rights of way and safety.
Grzeika suggested Moesle work with county staff to resolve some of those issues and return in July.
He, too, chastised speakers for supporting the rezoning for the wrong reasons.
"Focus on the issue the rezoning of this property and what that does from an economic, commercial, aesthetic value," he said, "because the route some people have taken has really brought more concern to me than comfort.
"I worry about what the real motivation is."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
| AVOIDING CONFLICT
Supervisor James Mullen disqualified himself from voting on the Fairview Beach rezoning, as he often does when construction issues are involved. He runs an excavation company. He left his seat among fellow supervisors and sat in the audience beside Bob Moesle, the developer who wants to build townhouses at the beach. Mullen also gave Moesle his business card. PAYING A PRICEWhen health officials did tests to determine where sewage was leaking into the Potomac River, officials discovered that 12 trailers were tapped into county lines illegally. Moesle's company, which owns the trailer park, argued it shouldn't have to pay for what probably happened before it took ownership. It reluctantly agreed to pay $96,000 in four installments, each six months apart. The second payment was due at the end of May. Moesle didn't pay it on time, but brought a $24,000 check to the June 16 public hearing on the townhouse rezoning. NEED TO 'B' DIFFERENTWhy Fairview B LLC? That's the name |
