United Voice at Kings Crossing Community Association President Jerry Ireland told the membership Monday night, "March 31, 2006 could be the last day you will be allowed to live in this mobile home park."
That warning grew out of a meeting Ireland had with Fairfax County Planning officials who informed him that JPI Development had every intention of purchasing the Penn Daw Terrace Mobile Home Park.
Acquiring the mobile home park "is a vital part of their [JPI] development plans," Ireland told his members during a meeting at Groveton Baptist Church. The mobile home park is located on Shields Avenue immediately north of the Kings Crossing site, now home to Michaels and Chuck E Cheese. JPI plans to build a large mixed use development on the 11-plus acre parcel.
JPI has been in negotiations with the owner of the park, Robert Epps, to purchase it and combine that site with the Kings Crossing land. However, the matter of compensating the mobile home owners for their homes and the cost of relocation has impacted the negotiations. Those requirements would become the responsibility of JPI once the ownership transfer was complete.
Most of the mobile homes can not be relocated due to restrictions imposed by the state Department of Transportation on the movement of mobile homes over a certain age. It has also been determined that they could suffer irreparable damage as a result of any move over five miles due to their age and time in location, according to Ireland at a previous association meeting.
Ireland urged the membership to attend a modular housing show this weekend in Chantilly to prepare for viable alternatives in developing future affordable housing. He circulated several pamphlets on possible alternatives to mobile home units.