By SHARON L. BOND and JON WILSON
Published April 18, 2004
They are using balloons, placards, demonstrations, meetings and lawyers to keep their tiny piece of paradise: a mobile home park off Gandy Boulevard near Riviera Bay.
The 255 residents of Riviera Harbor Mobile Home Park don't know whether their land has been sold, but they know a sale is in the works. And they worry that the buyer, who has offered $12-million for the property, will develop it.
Friday afternoon, about 75 residents gathered at Snug Harbor Road and Gandy Boulevard. They waved tiny American flags and signs with handwritten messages like "Save Our Homes" and "Developers get rich and make us Homeless."
The protesters, ranging from seniors to moms wheeling toddlers in strollers, came walking, steering electric scooters and pedaling big tricycles to shake the signs at passing traffic.
"We kind of did this at the last minute. This is a passionate community," said Mark Georges, head of the mobile home park residents association in unincorporated Pinellas just north of St. Petersburg's city limits.
"Many of the residents have been here for 20 to 30 years. Some are unable to move," Georges said.
The 255 homes have an average of three residents each, so the park is a community of about 800.
They are close, said Maggie Smith, who is on the board of directors and has lived at Riviera Harbor.
"Everybody watches out for everybody else, but nobody gets into the other's business," Smith said. She took half a day off work Friday to help organize the protest.
Residents were notified March 9 that Riviera Association Limited Partnership of Michigan, the owner, planned to accept the $12-million offer for the park. The closing date was set for Thursday.
Residents hired an attorney and went to court, saying they had documents guaranteeing them first right of refusal if there was a sale. In a hearing on Wednesday, the day before the closing, residents lost their case on a technicality. They plan to appeal.
Meanwhile, they don't know who the buyer is or whether the sale actually closed.
Attorney Christopher Kuhn of Tarpon Springs, who is representing the mobile home park residents, said through a spokeswoman Friday he did not know whether the sale went through.
