DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290675

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:  112 lines

RESIDENTS ALONG A DIRT ROAD BATTLE TO KEEP MOBILE HOMES OUT

At least 50 residents on Parsonage Street Extended are daring City Hall to remove two large steel posts planted on either side of a dirt road that is at the center of a battle between neighbors and officials.

The residents plan to sue if the city yanks them, and they might win, according to an expert on municipal law.

``That road is only as wide as the easement of the road,'' said David Lawrence, assistant director of the North Carolina Institute of Government. ``Nobody has the right to force an owner to give a wider easement than exists.''

Resident Royce Kirby put up the posts shortly after the City Council rezoned a 10.1-acre parcel several hundred yards down the road to accommodate Edward and Wanda Forbes' plans to put a mobile home there. The posts prevent the Forbeses from getting their 65-foot trailer to their property.

Residents of Parsonage Street Extended believe the rezoning is a precedent for a mobile home park, even though the zoning allows only two mobile homes on that property.

``Who knows what's going to go back there?'' said Samantha Hall, who lives near the rezoned property. ``We've done everything we could to try to stop this. We've heard rumors of a trailer park ever since we moved here.''

The Halls live next to Kirby, who lives beside the nameless road. Bobbie and Jasper Moore, who live further up the street, have led the neighborhood group against the rezoning.

``A law is no good if you can keep making amendments to it,'' Jasper Moore said.Bobbie Moore gathered 52 signatures on a petition against rezoning the property from residential to mobile home district just before the City Council made the change on Sept. 8. The City Council's decision to change the zoning, despite the petition and verbal protests, surprised the residents.

``We couldn't believe it,'' Bobbie Moore said Tuesday. ``We were totally shocked.''

Since then, the residents have hired an attorney and have sought every way possible to reverse the decision.

``There is no way you can call us bad neighbors,'' Jasper Moore said. ``We're just trying to protect the community.''

They say the posts are to prevent Kirby from losing his property to trucks hauling sand from a borrow pit on the road. The trucks cut into his property as they turn on the road, they say. Kirby could not be reached for comment.

The Forbeses and the city believe the posts are a backlash for losing the rezoning battle.

The city says the posts - about 6 feet tall by 6 inches in diameter - must go so fire trucks can make the tight turn onto the road.

The WCNC radio station is the only structure that sits along the road.

The city warned Kirby last week to remove the posts within five days. The deadline has passed and the posts remain.

Property deeds determine the right of way to be 18 feet. Kirby set the posts at 18 feet 9 inches. The city says it needs 22 feet.

``That's the question,'' City Manager Steve Harrell said. ``Even though it is your property, do you have the right to block someone else from fire protection? Our interpretation is we can require 22 feet so that our fire trucks can make that turn.''

Lawrence, of the institute of government, said the city doesn't have to be able to get fire trucks down the road.

``There are a lot of people who live down roads too small for fire trucks,'' Lawrence said.

Jasper Moore says he's seen fire trucks enter and leave the road without trouble. Harrell said a fire truck has to back up and re-enter several times before it can go through.

The new zoning allows only two mobile homes, and the Forbeses insist they were going to put only one there. They want to move to the neighborhood to be nearer to Wanda Forbes' parents, who also live on Parsonage Street Extended, just two houses from the road. Forbes' sister and brother-in-law live on the other side of the road from Kirby and allowed one of the steel posts placed on their property.

``I was raised in that neighborhood, and I don't understand why everybody's pants are in a bunch,'' said Forbes. ``They all know I can't afford a mobile home park. To me, it's just being spiteful. I just don't understand it.''

Residents also believe Charles Moore, another landowner along the road, has plans to put in a trailer park. Moore sold the 10.1 acres to the Forbeses and still owns another 20 acres nearby. Charles Moore is no relation to Jasper Moore.

``I've told them from the start, I had no intentions of putting in a trailer park,'' Charles Moore said. ``I wouldn't have sold it to the Forbeses if I thought they were going to put up a trailer park.''

Charles Moore said he had to sell the 10.1 acres or the law would have required him to pave the small road.

The City Council turned down the Forbeses' request to rezone the same property in 1996, according to city records. The planning board also refused to allow a mobile home zoning further up Parsonage Street on three different occasions, Bobbie Moore said.

About 10 acres on the other side of Parsonage Street is already zoned as a mobile home district, Harrell said. No trailers sit on it, yet.

``In my opinion it was a mistake to deny the Forbeses the first time,'' Mayor Rick Gardner said. ``Those type of mobile homes are all through the area. It was zoned for two mobile homes, period.''

Parsonage Street Extended sits just outside city limits but is within the city's zoning jurisdiction. Most of the homes are older. Farms and woodland surround the homes on both sides of Parsonage Street Extended, making it more a rural road than a city street.

Residents believe it is likely the city will annex the area in a few years, and the mobile home park fits into plans to collect more taxes.

``We're susceptible to be annexed at any time so you can play that scene out already,'' said Jasper Moore.

The Forbeses own their mobile home but rent the property where it sits just off Church Street Extended. They said they might wait until they can afford a modular home before moving to their property. ILLUSTRATION: EXPRESSING VIEWS

Residents of Parsonage Street Extended believe the rezoning is a

precedent for a mobile home park, even though the zoning allows only

two mobile homes on that property.

``Who knows what's going to go back there?'' said Samantha Hall, who

lives near the rezoned property. ``We've done everything we could to

try to stop this. We've heard rumors of a trailer park ever since we

moved here.''

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