There is a frustrating struggle
in the homes of the residents of Love Grove. Stay or go? A developer
has come into their community and bought a 25-acre tract of land that
is currently zoned for Light Manufacturing. Light Manufacturing is exactly
what has been going on that property since the 1920’s. The residents
are comfortable with it. The businesses that have been located there
on those 25-acres have employed many of Love Grove’s residents.
Love Grove sits isolated on the north side of Wilmington, North Carolina.
The residents of Love Grove are African American, the surrounding neighborhoods
are populated with African Americans, several of these community residents
are direct descendants of freemen and women who suffered the famous
1898 racial conflict when a white supremacy group headed by wealthy
landholders took the land from many of the thousands of refugees fleeing
gunshots and beatings and overthrew the local government in the only
coup d’ tat in the Country’s history. Some of these current
residents have fallen on hard times in their retirement years, unable
to work due to disability or age, these residents call upon each other
for friendship and assistance from time-to-time. Doing for others as
you would want others to do for you seems to be the community’s
creed.
Love Grove is basically landlocked by Smith Creek, an abandoned landfill
and CSX railroad tracks but residents claim to enjoy the solitude and
isolation that these obstacles afford. Willie Davis, 74 has lived in
Love Grove all of his life and worked at the light manufacturing site,
making plywood for 32 years. Many of these residents have either lived
there all their lives, or they were brought in by the marriage to a
member of the Love Grove community.
The legacy of Love Grove is peaceful and picturesque. Homes situated
under the shade of heavy pecan trees, little more than a train whistle
from time to time to disturb the afternoon nap. Approximately 60 families
call Love Grove home and do so with pride.
The modest post WWII homes are neighboring with new homes built by Habitat
for Humanity. The larger surrounding neighborhood’s houses have
an average value of $60,000 each. The homes in Love Grove are not that
different than those in the surrounding neighborhoods, some more cheerful
than others, most all of the homes are well worn and seem to be constantly
in use.
Once before, a developer bought this property and tried to build houses
on the property of the old lumber yard. City Council did not see the
benefits of changing the zoning from light manufacturing to a zoning
that would be conducive to residential construction and sales.
R-3 zoning is about as liberal a zoning a residential developer could
wish for. 14.5 units per acres are allowed in R-3 zoning. This compares
to a Multifamily zoning of 17.4 units per acre for those developers
wishing to build apartments or condominiums. A low density R-20 zoning
would allow only 2.2 houses per acre. Right now the majority of the
land in Love Grove is zoned R-3 (light manufacturing) even though many
of the houses have been there for more than 40 years and have never
been used for light manufacturing.
The new developing group is headed-up by a couple of partners from another
development company called Plantation Builders. Todd Taconis and Dave
Nathans head up the new development company calling itself Clarendon
Park. Clarendon is the name of one of the cross streets at the old lumber
yard site.
The publicly announced plans of the Clarendon Park developers include
the building and sale of 150 or so owner occupied, low to moderately
priced houses. These homes will be priced from $90- 120,000, a little
out of the range for most of the current residents of Love Grove and
a little out of character considering the surrounding, existing homes
have an average value of $60,000 each. In fact, the majority of the
residents of the North Side of Wilmington have a household income under
$20,000 per year. It would seem that the developers would be hard pressed
to locate 150 families inside the nearby African American community
capable of affording the Clarendon Park lifestyle. Perhaps they plan
to expand their market and try to capture some of the white home shoppers
that typically have been purchasing outside the city. Possible, but
highly unlikely, Wilmington is still, in many ways, a racially segregated
city.
The obvious lack of qualified buyers will slow sales and cause certain
hardship on the developers if they have no fall back plan. They may
be forced to do what they said they would not do, renting the units
in order to recoup their investment and turn a profit. In any established
neighborhood the prospect of high-density rental property is not an
exciting opportunity.
The Love Grove community
is no exception to that. In fact Love Grove residents fear more than
the typical renter- transient neighbors who have little to no investment
in the community. Love Grove has worked hard since 1909 to become what
it is today. The small tight knit community of 60 or so households know
better than most that no one in their neighboring communities will be
able to afford a monthly rental of $600 or more for these new Clarendon
Park homes. This lack of affordability means that the new market for
these homes will be those with Section 8 housing vouchers.
Section 8 has given many a family introduction into neighborhoods they
would not normally be able to have access to, because of disability,
lack of finances due to unemployment, sickness, or any number of issues.
Typically Section 8 works because it spreads out those with needs rather
than gathering them into an living environment typically thought of
as the “projects” where residents are densely packed into
rough, ill cared for apartments overrun with crime and frequent evidence
of vandalism and property damage painting a vivid picture of despair.
The looming prospect of Section 8 housing locating in Love Grove is
extremely frightening for these men and women who have fought the good
fight to build sound equity in their homes. Many, if not all of these
home owners, have recently been approached with flyers by real estate
companies soliciting the residents’ property. These prospecting
circulars announce that they have buyers standing by and are willing
to broker the deal in an instant. Oddly these Love Grove circulating
real estate salesmen have direct ties to the Clarendon developers. It
seems that they want as much of Love Grove as they can get. Love Grove
Properties, Municipal Properties and Town and County are all competing
(wink-wink) for the opportunity to buy someone’s house. All of
these companies are owned by principles of Claredon Park LLC .
The reality of re-zoning these 25 acres at the end of King Street from
light manufacturing to R-3 is a nightmare. King Street is the main thoroughfare
in Love Grove, it is the only way both in and out of the community.
Traffic from the rezoning is estimated to add an additionally 3,000
trips per day past Mr. Davis’ house. The demolition of the old
lumber yard and the new construction and site preparation work will
create noise and dust for more than a year or two. The abutting landfill
on the east side of Love Grove is under a Brownfield Study and may have
to have some serious clean-up after EPA makes its recommendation on
how to prep the property for use as a City park.
One of the Clarendon partners says that the alternative to this nightmare
resulting from the R-3 zoning is leaving the property zoned Light Manufacturing
and placing businesses such as a dog kennel or a topless bar on the
site. If the residents think bulldozers dieseling their way around,
carving out portions of earth for the 14.5 units per acre that the zooming
allows is annoying, how about turning the property into a garbage dump.
“Yeah how’d you like them apples?!”, he seemed to
say when he addressed the media about the attempts of the residents
to convince Council to reject the rezoning.
So the homeowners of Love Grove seem to be stuck between a rock and
a hard place. Who in the world will want to buy their house in 2 years
for what it was worth 6 months ago? How can they stand the noise and
air pollution to be caused by the construction? What about the traffic?
The Section 8 housing and all the inherent problems and concerns that
come with it, seem to be nothing compared to the alternative suggested
by the developer. Leaving the property as is and learn to live with
seedy topless joints and the truck loads of garbage.
It will be a miracle if the residents get 80 cents on the dollar for
their homes. The developers know this, that is why they have turned
the dogs loose on the Love Grove homeowners. Tempting them with “immediate
buyers” for their property. “Get out now!”, the developers
seem to command. “Get out before it is too late, before we tear
up the earth and house the undesirables, violating your sanctuary…
get out now before we have to resort to putting in strip clubs and garbage
dumps.”
What options do the residents have? Stay? Leave? How much will they
get for their homes and what will it cost to replace these homes? Where
will they go? It is sad to think about, but many of these displaced
Love Grove residents may end up in Clarendon Park on a Section 8 voucher.
Clarendon Park developers’ actions pose a true and serious threat
to Love Grove homeowners. If the development goes ahead as planned,
receiving their high density zoning, then there is potential for dramatic
disruption of a quality of life enjoyed in the community since the early
1900’s. Love Grove virtually has no crime and has enjoyed many
uneventful years of peaceful existence. Most disturbing to the community
is the prospect of the introduction of upwards of 1,000 new residents.
Many of these 1,000 new residents residing in the 300 or so rental apartments,
that the new zoning will accommodate, will be transient and unlikely
to share the same spirit that is shared currently by the men and women
of Love Grove living in the 60 or so homes already situated in this
community. That spirit of neighborly compassion and pride in community
will soon vanish. The enjoyment of property and lifestyle will also
be exterminated because of the influx of traffic and the threat of a
different human culture introduced into the community.
But on the other hand, should the developers plan for rezoning be rejected,
then the alternative, says one of the principles of the development
team, will be the introduction of one or more undesirable businesses
proposed in an earlier statement to the media. The threat of topless
strip clubs or garbage dumps or any of the other culturally disturbing
businesses one can think of, surely has the residents in fear of opposing
the rezoning.
Combine this anxiety and uncertainty with the predatory sales agents
roaming about the neighborhood seeking homeowners willing to escape
the pressure by selling their home to the Clarendon Park developer.
Favorable prices for the seller are nonexistent now that the threats
have come forth. Who would want to buy into this nightmare unless it
would fit into the developers’ plans?
"Blockbusting" is an illegal practice which is also called
"panic peddling," or "panic selling." It is where
people are encouraged to sell their property because the ethnic characteristics
of the neighborhood are changing, often with the threat or implication
that property values will fall and crime will increase. Federal law
protects individuals from blockbusting via the Federal Fair Housing
Act.
Typically when thinking about a situation that involves blockbusting
you have seen the threat of the introduction of one race of people into
an already established community of people of a different race. The
mere threat of the race mixing of a community has many times seen prices
and value drop drastically for the existing homeowner. More popular
in the 60’s than today, blockbusting seems to have taken a new
approach in Love Grove.
Rather than the threat of race mixing or ethnic mixing, the community
of Love Grove has several different threats, all of which threaten the
culture and way of life of some 60 or so homeowners and their families.
There is an obvious conspiracy to drive these residents out. The reason
for wanting the land of the residents is unclear, but the motive is
certainly profit.
Ask any of the current residents of Love Grove what will happen if the
developers get their rezoning, ask them what may happen if the developers
do not get their rezoning and you will hear pessimism and fear in their
answers.
This fight for property rights is far from over. The more this becomes
a case study for a nation of the disenfranchised, the more penalties
will be leveled against such blatant acts of greed and terror.
Hopefully, the community of Love Grove will survive. The community welcomes
the support and goodwill of all sympathetic citizens and looks forward
to the day when they can rest in peace with little fear of a displaced
life.
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