UPWARDLY MOBILE HOME UNWANTED.Byline: Valeria Godines Riverside Press-Enterprise When Robin Bell and his wife came home one evening two weeks ago, they saw about 20 neighbors gathered near their Woodcrest home. Some were crying. Others were silent. All of them were staring at a mobile home parked next to the Bells' home, in a neighborhood where houses cost $130,000 to $200,000. The residents on Moonridge Drive and nearby streets had a new neighbor, and they weren't too happy about it. They have banded together to protest the three-bedroom mobile home's presence among their custom homes. The mobile home's owner, Michael Fincher, is expected to move in soon. They have circulated petitions, collecting about 200 signatures. About 12 residents went to a Riverside County Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. meeting last week to protest. They filed the petition with the county and plan to file one with the state, although a county official said state law appears to be on Fincher's side. ``Believe me, you wouldn't want it next to your house. It doesn't fit in with the neighborhood at all,'' said Robin Bell. He said his neighbors fear their property values may decline. ``Some of them were crying, saying, `I can't believe we've had the property values as bad as they are and now this.' '' Fincher, 34, said he was stunned stun tr.v. stunned, stun·ning, stuns 1. To daze or render senseless, by or as if by a blow. 2. To overwhelm or daze with a loud noise. 3. by news of the petition. He is moving from Highland to return to an area he considers his hometown. ``I'm feeling kind of persecuted,'' he said. ``I don't like the idea of moving into an area where I am not welcome.'' Fincher added that he understands his neighbors' concerns but argues that his home and the property will look nice in a few weeks. He plans to have a lawn, garage and a patio. The mobile home will also get a fresh coat of paint to help the home blend in Verb 1. blend in - blend or harmonize; "This flavor will blend with those in your dish"; "This sofa won't go with the chairs" blend, go fit, go - be the right size or shape; fit correctly or as desired; "This piece won't fit into the puzzle" better with the neighborhood. It is already attached to a foundation. He said he decided to move into the neighborhood because, like his soon-to-be neighbors, he wanted a little land and wanted to build equity. He has been living in a mobile home park for the past 5-1/2 years. ``It's kind of ironic,'' he said. ``As a teen-ager, I used to drive down Van Buren and look up there and think I would like to live there one day.'' Bell said he and the other neighbors think Fincher is a nice man. It's just the mobile home they have a problem with. ``It's turquoise turquoise, hydrous phosphate of aluminum and copper, Al2(OH)3PO4·H2O+Cu, used as a gem. It occurs rarely in crystal form, but is usually cryptocrystalline. ,'' Bell said. Despite the neighbors' protest, they realize they may be fighting a losing battle. State law allows mobile and modular homes Modular homes are houses that are divided into multiple modules or sections which are manufactured in a remote facility and then delivered to their intended site of use. The modules are assembled into a single residential building using either a crane or trucks. to be set among houses, said Jim Monroe, senior code enforcement Code Enforcement is the act of enforcing a set of s, principles, or laws (especially written ones) and insuring observance of a system of norms or customs. An authority usually enforces a civil code, a set of rules, or a body of laws and compel those subject to their authority to officer for the county. ``Any place you can build a house you can basically put a mobile home,'' Monroe said. ``Several years ago, it became illegal to discriminate against the mobile home industry.'' At least one resident in the Woodcrest neighborhood filed a complaint with the county's environmental health department, which issued a stop work order, Fincher said. The order could be lifted pending the results of an investigation. The neighbor complained about the construction of a septic tank septic tank, underground sedimentation tank in which sewage is retained for a short period while it is decomposed and purified by bacterial action. The organic matter in the sewage settles to the bottom of the tank, a film forms excluding atmospheric oxygen, and and the use of dynamite dynamite, explosive made from nitroglycerin and an inert, porous filler such as wood pulp, sawdust, kieselguhr, or some other absorbent material. The proportions vary in different kinds of dynamite; often ammonium nitrate or sodium nitrate is added. in the process, Fincher said. Department officials ordered soil percolation tests A percolation test (from percolation, colloquially called a perc test) is a test to determine the absorption rate of soil for a septic drain field or "leach field". The results of a percolation test are required to properly design a septic system. after they discovered that blasting had been done on the property, said Damian Meins, division director of the environmental resources management division. Use of dynamite to break up soil is not uncommon, but it can damage the soil's ability to absorb liquid from the septic septic /sep·tic/ (sep´tik) pertaining to sepsis. sep·tic adj. 1. Of, relating to, having the nature of, or affected by sepsis. 2. system, Meins said. Fincher said he thought the complaint was an attempt to keep him from moving into the neighborhood. Even so, he is hopeful he can overcome the animosity. ``I want to be on good terms with my neighbors. It will be a challenge and that is the one thing that concerns me,'' he said. |
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