Home Depot – Cellular house park in Mount Nice space to be redeveloped. Tenants battle to relocate. | Information

MOUNT PLEASANT — What may be the final cellular house park within the Mount Nice space is about to shut, clearing the way in which for a brand new subdivision, and a few remaining tenants are battling the monetary peril that comes with proudly owning a house on rented land.

The family-owned Watts Cellular Home Park has existed for about 40 years alongside Six Mile Highway, predating the city’s northward enlargement.

Now it is surrounded by new subdivisions, and its dust street the place manufactured properties sit beneath stay oak and pecan timber will quickly turn into a reminiscence. 

“It is type of like a dagger in my facet, actually,” stated Eric Snyder, 41, who has lived at Watts Park for 20 years. “That is simply the final piece of actuality Mount Nice’s acquired.”

A bigger cellular park at Six Mile Highway and U.S. Freeway 17 years in the past grew to become Six Mile Market buying middle, full with a Passion Foyer and a Harris Teeter. The unique Laing Center Faculty was additionally on Six Mile Highway — the location is now a Home Depot — and within the 1980s the Snee Farm subdivision was developed simply throughout Freeway 17 from the top of Six Mile Highway.

For years Watts Park resisted the tide of growth washing over Mount Nice and remained a spot to stay affordably. Tenants usually purchased their very own modular properties and paid $300 month-to-month to hire the land. 

The issue with such residing preparations comes, because it has at a number of manufactured house parks within the Charleston space, when the enterprise closes right down to clear the land for growth. It prices hundreds of {dollars} to relocate a manufactured house. There are restricted locations to take them. Those that would moderately promote than transfer their house are usually provided pennies on the greenback by buyers conscious that the homeowners have few choices.

“I’ve gotten affords for $1,500 and $2,000,” stated Jacob Worthington, who purchased his house when he moved to Watts Park three years in the past. “I paid $10,000 for it and put a number of work into it.”

“I do not know what I’ll do,” stated Worthington, who stated he is been out of labor for the reason that pandemic struck in March and might’t afford to maneuver the house.

A Feb. 1 move-out deadline is looming. About half of the 30 tenants, who have been notified of the deadline over the summer time, have already left.

As development and growth expanded via the better Charleston space, the closure of cellular house parks, significantly in North Charleston, performed out repeatedly. Probably the most dramatic was the closure of Trailwood, a park with greater than 400 properties close to Charleston Worldwide Airport, in 2013.

The Watts household has owned its cellular house park for 2 generations and determined to shut the enterprise and annex the land into Mount Nice “as a result of well being and private circumstances of the homeowners,” in response to an announcement offered in response to written questions.

“The household wish to see the property redeveloped in a approach that continues to be family-friendly and that preserves the Lowcountry environment alongside the oaks,” the Watts household assertion stated. “Annexation and rezoning would assist information future growth.”

Park resident Emily Pelletier stated the Watts household “have been tremendous good” and gave residents greater than six months’ advance discover concerning the closure of the park, though the tenants are all on month-to-month leases. Nonetheless, she stated her house is just too previous to maneuver, so she and her husband and their two rescue canine are on the lookout for a brand new place to stay.

“We will have to maneuver out of Mount Nice,” she stated.

Watts Park is not really in Mount Nice however moderately is surrounded by it. The cellular house park sits in unincorporated Charleston County, and now the homeowners have requested to have the 11.5-acre property annexed into the city and rezoned for single-family properties.

The preliminary request was denied, partly as a result of a high-density zoning was requested that might enable for homes on tons as small as 4,000 sq. toes.

“In fact, an enormous concern there was, what occurs to the residents there,” stated Jeff Ulma, Mount Nice’s planning director. “There have been a lot of issues about displacement.

“It’s personal property, so it’s the proprietor’s resolution what to do with it,” he stated. “It’s like when a developer decides to redevelop a shopping mall the place there are tenants with leases.”

A revised annexation and zoning request, calling for minimal 8,000-square-foot tons — about 5 homes per acre — goes earlier than the city’s Planning Fee on Wednesday. 

These looking for to develop property within the East Cooper space usually have to annex into Mount Nice with a purpose to get water and sewer service to serve the brand new properties or companies. Watts Park makes use of septic techniques.

“As soon as the tenants are relocated and annexation and rezoning are accepted, the homeowners will think about promoting the land sooner or later,” the Watts household stated.

Snyder stated it has been a pleasant, quiet place to stay, and his 14-year-old daughter has grown up there with him and his spouse. Now, with Feb. 1 looming, they’re speeding to finalize plans to depart.

Attain David Slade at 843-937-5552. Observe him on Twitter @DSladeNews.