A new rezoning hearing data has been established to determine the fate of the 160 households living in Homestead Village Mobile Home Park in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Committee of the Whole, under the Raleigh Planning Commission, will meet at 9 am on Tuesday, July 1st, in the Municipal Building in Room 305.  The group will consider the merits of Rezoning application Z-006-08.

The zoning change would allow a proposal by a developer to build more than 1300 homes and an assortment of retail and commercial buildings on the 38 acre site, off of Capital Boulevard, near the 540 interchange.  Katherine and Robert Binns, owners of the park, filed the request for a zoning change on October 19th of last year.  The petitioners suggest that the region would benefit from a rezoning because a classification would provide the area with flexibility in the 4 types of land use (Shopping Center, O&I-2, Residential -4, and conservation management) that are otherwise “lacking in areas” .  They disagree with the notion that the development would cause significant impacts to traffic.

An initial analysis by the planning department suggests that the rezoning would create demand for an additional 599 seats in the area’s public schools.

A previous hearing was delayed pending a traffic impact study.

Although the League of California Cities is one of the groups behind “No on 98, Yes on 99,” the City of Mission Viejo has broken from that position.

The vote was 4-0, with one council member abstaining.

The Council affirmed a statement that 98 “provides absolute private property rights for all property, including small businesses, houses of worship, family farms and investment properties from eminent domain seizer to give to another private party when owner does not wish to sell.”

Mission Viejo is a planned community in Orange County. It has a population of approximately 100,000. Most of the land is either single family residential or else light retail.

At one point, developers proclaimed that Mission Viejo was “a safe place, for you and your money!” It was ranked the safest city in 2007.

Environmentalists have added to the list of groups with a critique against California’s June 3rd initiative on eminent domain, Proposition 98.

Proposition 98 is one of two ballot referenda which would curb eminent domain. It has been a focus of MHR because it would also gradually phase out rent control, a protection that governs lot rents in many municipalities in California.

The California chapter of the American Planning Association believes that provisions in 98 could pave the way for a rewriting of many laws that protect the environment in the state. Included are laws protecting air, water, and wetlands. Cal APA also believes 98 could affect smart growth provisions.

The reason is that 98 prohibits the transfer of property where economic benefit is transferred from one group to another. This changes the rules around “takings.”

Environmentalists concede that almost any protection would have the affect of shifting value from one group to another.

• Constrain development in historic neighborhoods, take potential equity from land owners in those locations.
• Protect Mono Lake, harm thirsty people downstream.

The language in Proposition 98 goes even further to provoke questions about how well communities would be able to enforce rules in their own neighborhoods. Would a town be able to enforce a blue law against liquor sales on Sunday if liquor store owners could demonstrate that they would experience a taking?

APA is actually supporting Proposition 99.

If a mobile home is one that comes on wheels, than could a buy of such a product have a legitimate complaint if it turned out that mobile homes with wheels cost extra?

That is the question before a Circuit Court in Miller County, Arkansas, where a plaintiff is suing Clayton Homes and CMH because extra charges were added onto an invoice for a home. The extra charges, for axles and wheels, were not adequately disclosed, according to attorney Matt Keil. Keil is representing a class of consumers who paid the axle and wheel charges.

There is something odd about this. Most mobile homes are such in name only. Once they are sited, most never move again.

Its not an impossibility that a recession could restore the manufactured housing sector.
Consumers often change their purchasing habits when times are tough. You know the logic — less steak, more hamburger.

Today, we have evidence of some of that kind of thinking. Dollar Tree just blew away its earnings (more…)