Documents provided by residents of the Wellington Estates Mobile Home Park, located off Airport Road in Arden, reveal that the owners of the park, the county’s largest, had repeatedly told residents that the park would not be sold. However, an online listing for the property, last confirmed Jan. 9, designates the property as “commercial” and for sale.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners unanimously rejected a proposed rezoning of the property from residential to commercial at its Jan. 8 meeting, citing a lack of any plan to relocate residents of the 400 homes on the site as the major reason behind their vote. Residents from the park criticized the park’s owner, Matthew Jenkins, as having deceived them about his intentions. In one letter from Jenkins’ brother Dexter, dated May 17, 2005, he calls rumors of the park’s sale “salacious.” Another letter from Jenkins himself, dated Dec. 10, 2007, states that “we will continue to operate Wellington Estates as a mobile home park” and that he was pursuing a commerical rezoning of the land “simply to be in conformity with other parcels.”
The listing for the 62-acre property states a suggested value of $11.5 million for the site.
Jenkins, whose Los Alamitos, Ca.,-based company, SDD Enterprises, manages the park, declined to comment when reached by Xpress.
— David Forbes, staff writer
A California company? Obviously a case of lying for dollars. Another example of how unscrupulous outsiders are ruining WNC. Fortunately the real estate market is slowing way down.