Holly Acres trailer park owner fighting county to rebuild

Holly Acres mobile home park owner Henry Ridge is appealing the Prince William County zoning administrator’s opinion that the homes devastated by Tropical Storm Lee can’t be rebuilt, said Ridge’s attorney Mark Moorstein.

Moorstein expects the appeal to be filed by Monday. The appeal then goes to the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which meets the third Monday of each month.

Ridge’s appeal asks two questions, said Moorstein. Was the flooding the result – at least in part – of man-made decisions or actions? And is there an exception to county code that would allow the reconstruction of a similar residential development?

Moorstein believes the answer to both questions is yes.

Moorstein said that the lack of improvement to a culvert located at the CSX railroad crossing above Marumsco Creek could have been a major factor in the Sept. 8 rains and subsequent flooding that left 66 property owners without homes. Moorstein will be using the county’s own watershed study as part of his argument.

Click here for continuing coverage of the Sept. 8 floods.

Prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff planning firm in Herndon and published in December 2009, the Marumsco Creek and Farm Creek Watershed Management Plan documents 10 locations within Marumsco that are subject to flooding. According to the county-commissioned study, flooding is a result of floodplain encroachment from developments and coastal storm surge. But it also states that flooding in that area is “being caused by undersized culvert crossings.”

Options the county considered at the time to prevent flooding was to replace the culvert crossing below the railroad or the acquisition and removal of low-lying Holly Acres properties. The study also references micro-tunneling for the installation of supplemental floodplain culverts, which would have cost between $1 million and $2 million.

These improvements would have also helped with potential flooding at Easy Street and U.S. 1, according to the study. Those on Easy Street were particularly hard hit by the storm, which did massive flood damage to the businesses that lay next to or across from Marumsco Creek.

County spokesman Jason Grant said the the size of the culvert has not been changed since the study, which looked at various other issues like water quality and stream corridor improvements. He also said the cause of the flooding on Sept. 8 was the amount of rainfall and the fact that the homes were located in a floodway.

Grant added that the culvert, which is CSX property, could have been wider but that wouldn’t have stopped all the flooding that occurred that night.

In the case of Holly Acres, Moorstein said a trailer got pushed onto the culvert, which is below a large grass berm that supports the railroad tracks. Several cars were pushed up into the culvert area, as well, said Moorstein.

Grant said county officials checked the culvert status before the storm and said it was clear.
On Sept. 12, the county zoning administrator stated that rebuilding in that area isn’t permitted because the majority of units declared unsafe for habitation was located in a floodway. County code section 32-601.55 states “no structural alteration, addition or repair, singly or cumulatively, to any nonconforming structure shall exceed 50 percent of its appraised value as shown in the assessment records of Prince William County at the time of its becoming a nonconforming use, unless the structure is permanently changed to a conforming use.”

Holly Acres is more than 40 years old and its residential use is considered nonconforming among the now largely commercially zoned land around it.

However, Moorstein cites a section of state code that says that a property owner with a nonconforming use like the Holly Acres trailer park could re-build to its original nonconforming condition after a natural disaster or act of God. State code section 15.2-2307 states, “If such building is damaged greater than 50 percent and cannot be repaired, rebuilt or replaced except to restore it to its original nonconforming condition, the owner shall have the right to do so.”

It goes on to state that “any work done to repair, rebuild or replace such building shall be in compliance with the provisions of the local flood plain regulations adopted as a condition of participation in the National Flood Insurance Program.”

The National Flood Insurance Program is referenced in a section of federal code pertaining to state and local guidelines on mobile homes. Moorstein said it appears that the replacement of the Holly Acres trailers might be allowed should they meet the criteria established under that section of federal code.

The goal of the National Flood Insurance Act was to help provide protection against losses from floods and to minimize exposure to flooding by tying the program to a floodplain management plan. Prince William County joined the voluntary flood program in 1981, 13 years after the legislation was passed.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.