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Residents crowd meeting to oppose Poplar Grove mobile home park indevelopment
- By Jennifer Wheeler
Rockford Register Star
Posted Feb. 5, 2014 @ 5:00 pm
POPLAR GROVE - Dozens of Poplar Grove residents packed into a four-hour village meeting Tuesday night to voice concerns about a mobile home park development proposed in the northern part of the community.
Flora Meadows LLC has applied for special use permits to create Hawthorn Meadows North and South mobile home parks near Britnie Drive and Poplar Grove Road, according to plans presented at thePlanning and Zoning Commission meeting. There would be 284 units, a community recreation area and an office on about 72 acres of land.
Staff of the Belvidere-Boone County Planning Department say all types of housing - including mobile home parks - are needed in a community.
But Associate Planner Gina DelRose said there are concerns about whether the project would disturb wetlands, like the site plans indicate, or how usable the recreational space would be since it would be located in areas that frequently flood.
Residents said they are worried about the type of people these mobile home parks would attract to the community.
Jim Hursh, who is representing the applicant, and Tim McCarty, project manager, assured community members Tuesday that the wetlands would not be disturbed and signs would be placed on the property notifying residents about these areas.
McCarty said all units would be high-end, and if community members were blindfolded and walked inside one of the units, they would not be able to tell the difference between the manufactured homes and other area homes.
"Nobody in this town would be embarrassed about (the units)," McCarty said.
The applicant's reassurances weren't enough to win support of the project from the Planning and Zoning Commission nor staff with the Belvidere-Boone County Planning Department.
The measure will go before the Administration Committee on Feb. 24 and the recommendation coming from there will be forwarded to theVillage Board, which will consider the proposal at its March 10 meeting. Trustees have final say in approving or denying the special use permits.
Jennifer Wheeler: 815-987-1354; jwheeler@rrstar.com;@jenmwheeler