Mobile Home Listings & News

Mobile-home park an option
Developers have a backup plan in case the proposal for the Whitehouse Cove falls through.
BY MATT SABO
247-4712
May 18, 2007

POQUOSON -- If a $90 million waterfront development that includes 138 condominiums, townhouses and houses and a marina doesn't pan out, developers of the proposed project have a fallback position: a 100-unit mobile-home park.

Developer Robert Brown & Associates recently submitted an application to double the size of a mobile-home park on property it owns at Whitehouse Cove.

While the Brown family has been relocating renters in the existing 50-unit mobile-home park, intending to close it for good in February, inaction from the city on a rezoning proposal they filed has prompted the backup plan.

Brad Brown, director of development for Robert Brown & Associates, referenced the proposed Whitehouse Cove project in the application to enlarge the mobile-home park.

"While we do have a pending application to rezone the property for a development plan that we strongly prefer, it is necessary for our ownership to consider alternatives should our rezoning application continue to be delayed or denied," Brown wrote.

At its May 29 meeting, the City Council might consider rezoning land to allow for the new waterfront development. Mayor Gordon Helsel couldn't be reached for comment.

The proposal has drawn criticism from residents who say the development is too dense, will attract too many schoolchildren and cause traffic and other growth-related woes to nearby residents. Other residents say the project will bring in tax revenues and the condominiums and other residences will allow older citizens to remain in the city and not have to worry about yard maintenance and other chores.

Brown said the trailer park application is simply a viable alternative to the initial plans that include a marina and restaurant.

"We strongly prefer the other," he said. "We're hopeful that the plan will be approved and that it will happen in the near future."

Only two trailers remain in the mobile-home park that was once home to 50 families, Brown said. As the proposal languishes, the developers said they have to protect their investment.

"We've got a decaying situation there," he said, "and we have to look at every alternative."