Northeast Charlotte mobile home community could be displaced by new development

CHARLOTTE, N.C – Residents of Forest Park Mobile Homes are organizing against a development that would displace the entire Northeast Charlotte neighborhood of at least 60 families.

Leonel Chavez has lived in the community for decades. He says most residents own their mobile homes and invest tens of thousands of dollars into them while paying $500 a month to rent the land.

They feel anger, they feel saddened, they feel like they’re not being heard, they feel like they’re forgotten about,” Chavez said. “It’s my childhood home. It’s a lot of people’s childhood not only that, these are families that work hard to provide for their families and being told that they only have a few months before they have to leave and leave all their life savings that were put into the homes. That’s an injustice.”

Wood Partners, a developer is asking Charlotte City Council to rezone 19 acres which includes the mobile home park. The company wants to build close to 400 apartments, townhomes and some restaurants and retail.

“I come before you with a number of petitions and this undoubtedly one of the more difficult ones we’ve had to navigate,” Bridget Grant from Wood Partners said. “We appreciate staff support but we know we have a little more work to do on this one.”

Several residents spoke against the re-zoning at this meeting, for the first time in recent history city council members used a translation device to understand the speakers. The Forest Park Community is made up of mostly immigrants.

The current plans for the new development designate at least 5% of the units for low income families. Representatives for Wood Partners says they are also working on a transition plan for Forest Park families.

“What we can commit to today, for council before the community, is it will do everything, we will work hard to try to make that transition reasonable,” Carter Siegel from Wood Partners said.

The Forest Park community is District 4 represented by Councilwoman Renee Johnson.

“The issue is affordability in the city,” Councilwoman Johnson said. “Where do people go where they can pay $500 a month. These residents have taken the extra step to protect themselves in purchasing a mobile home. This happens all throughout our city.”

Regardless of council’s decision on the re-zoning, the land owner has notified residents that they must be off the land by May of 2026.

“We’re just not another neighborhood. We’re not just numbers. We’re family, we’re community,” Chavez said.

City Council asked developers to outline a transition plan for residents before they vote on the rezoning petition in August.