The residents of the Lakeview Mobile Home Park on Weaver Dairy road are in danger of being displaced from their homes, and, according to Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger, there may be very little the Town of Chapel Hill can do to prevent that.

Texas-based developer Hanover Co. has proposed to redevelop the property and even if the town denies the plans, the current landowners have the right to dissolve all of the residents’ leases and start the process over again without encumbrance.

“We don’t get to decide whether people stay [in their homes],” said Hemminger. “The landowners decide whether they renew leases or not.”

A catalyzing factor to this situation would be the fact that the majority of the leases at Lakeview are 30-day automatic renewing leases, meaning the residents could be out in a matter of weeks, although the town is hoping it doesn’t come to that.

“I don’t think the landowner would only give 30 days,” said Hemminger. “I think they’re all more humane than that. Disrupting people’s lives is very difficult. We don’t have any control over that as a town though.”

Hemminger and the rest of the Town Council heard from residents during the public comment section of a recent meeting that the people of Lakeview see their residence as anything but temporary.

“Mobile home tenants tend to be some of your most stable, long-term tenants,” said Hemminger. “There are people that spoke [at the meeting] that have been there for 17 years or more.”

The town and county are currently working together to find another property where the Lakeview residents could move, including a property off of Millhouse Road which is located in the rural buffer, complicating the process further.

This issue and other pending mobile home redevelopments were discussed by elected officials at last week’s Assembly of Governments meeting.

Photo via Town of Chapel Hill