The entrance to Countryside Mobile Home Park at 457 West River Road in Waterville is shown last month. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE — The Planning Board on Tuesday will visit Countryside Mobile Home Park before deciding whether to approve two additional lots that should have received approval from the board, but did not, before two double-wide mobile homes were placed there.
The board voted Oct. 24 to postpone the request for that revision after park residents complained about ongoing water problems in the park, including flooding and crumbling concrete slabs under mobile homes, as well as poor roads and rodents.
The site visit Tuesday is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Victoria Drive in the park, located at 457 West River Road, and the board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at 46 Front St. downtown.
City Planner Ann Beverage said officials recently found an old site plan for the park, which was built in the 1970s, and the spot where the two mobile homes were placed is designated only for green space on that plan.
Countryside is sandwiched between Punky Meadows mobile home park to its south and Countryside/Village Green park to its north and all three are owned by Mark Hsu, who bought them last summer. A park expansion, approved by the board in the past, is currently being built between Countryside/Village Green and Countryside, and Hsu is seeking approval for a second expansion that would be built behind Punky Meadows.
But Planning Board Chairwoman Samantha Burdick said at the Oct. 24 meeting that she did not think the city should approve any park expansions until problems are fixed there. Hsu, meanwhile, said he has been working on some of the issues, including the need for a fence, which was erected. He also addressed a citation from the city’s code enforcement office about a piece of wire on the ground that was from an electrical pole that had fallen. Hsu told the board the wire was owned by Central Maine Power Co. and not live — only a piece of debris.
Randy Butler of Dirigo Engineering of Fairfield told the board he and Hsu did not realize approval from the board was needed for the two additional mobile home lots in Countryside. Hsu said they worked with the state Manufacturing Housing Board on the issue and the board signed off on it.
When Hsu talked with employees in the city’s code enforcement office, however, he realized Planning Board approval was needed. He said he planned to sell the two homes, but the owners would lease the land under them, according to Hsu.
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