The Cactus Rose mobile home park community received a final relocation package offer from developer Oden Hughes, after a year of negotiations, meetings, counter-proposals, and public protests. CR’s property owner, 500 Bastrop Highway Ltd., had originally applied to rezone the park community from single-family, commercial, and office to mixed use in Dec. 2015 to accommodate developer plans for luxury apartments and retail to be known as Lenox Oaks. More than 50 families lived in Cactus Rose when the application was submitted. Since, more than a dozen have moved out. The remaining residents will have nine months to vacate, although they have the option of moving sooner with advanced written notice. The financial relocation assistance provided to the family depends on living situation: Those in single-wide mobile homes will be offered $10,000; double-wides receive $20,000; and those in recreational vehicles or renters in permanent structures stand to receive $2,000. Bilingual relocation assistance from a licensed real estate agent will also be made available to the residents. The final agreement stipulates that Cactus Rose residents will be relocated within 2.9 miles of their former neighborhood, though a general lack of affordable housing in that area makes that promise seem somewhat halfhearted. “This is by no means a desired situation, but the mobile home residents are pleased with the agreement,” District 3 Council Member Pio Renteria said in an email to the Chronicle. The council member had worked with the Montopolis Neighborhood Contact Team, community organization Serve the People, and CR residents to keep the neighborhood intact. “As a city, we are far from granting renters and mobile home residents the rights they deserve, but this is a step in the right direction.”
This article appears in November 25 • 2016.