CLEVES, Ohio – Residents in a fight to save their homes got one company to back off Friday and not force them out. But the people living in the Candlelight Mobile Home Park fear a new threat.
"We're not being considered at all in this," says resident George Willoughby. "It's just a business transaction and a bad business transaction.
Candlelight residents piled into a borrowed party bus Friday so they could get to a meeting of the Hamilton County Rural Zoning Commission.
Unilock, a company that makes paving stones, wanted to have the property the park's on rezoned so they could use it as phase two of the manufacturing facility they're building.
But at the last minute. Unilock decided not to include the park.
"We found in the best interests of the residents and our company, we could redesign our current footprint on a smaller parcel of land," said Glenn Wiley of Unilock.
So residents don't have to move.
But we found the park's owner has an agreement where Schueler Group could still buy the land, and residents fear they would then be forced out.
"We got a lot of money tied up in our homes," said Roy Bernhardt. "Sure, they're mobile homes, but they're our homes."
We checked and found the land the mobile home park is on is zoned for industry. The park was grandfathered in.
So if someone buys the land, they could build there without a zoning hearing, leaving residents in no mood to party.
"I don't see a victory. I see more trouble," Bernhardt said.
