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Sunday's Child - Nikolas
Midland Mobile Home Development Refunds Deposits - 1/17/13
Matt Rist
mrist@ cbs7.com
CBS 7 News Reporter
January 17, 2012
MIDLAND – It was billed as an answer to the housing crisis in one West Texas city, but the zoning permit has been denied for Stone Bridge Estates.
Now questions are building about why a solution would be rejected and about what happened to resident’s deposits.
An undisclosed number of hopeful homeowners made 5-hundred dollar deposits on the development. Owners couldn't say why they took deposits before zoning was secured--just that they were caught off guard by the zoning commission's decision to hold off on the project.
"You know we couldn't have taken any deposits if we didn't have good reason to think everything was moving in the right direction,” said Co-Owner of Stone Bridge Estates Brant Greathouse.
The owners say they refunded all of the deposits and are working to move the project forward,” said Greathouse. “And anything that came in since has been refunded, because that’s the right thing to do.”
One of the biggest problems the zoning commission had is actually the properties neighbors -- they are surrounded on the south by industrial piping companies, which are loud, noisy and operate 24 hours a day. The owners declined to say how they'd address that concern.
"That's one question I want to steer clear of…so I don't have an answer to that,” said Greathouse.
We did reach out to the zoning and planning commission, but the city would not release their contact information. Those on the board we did speak to would not comment on the decision. The city said they have already received an appeal from the company.
"They are going through that process as we speak,” said City of Midland Representative Sara Higgins.
For now, residents who made those deposits will have to look for another place to live.
Neighboring industrial piping companies did not want to be on camera, but say their main concern is the safety of drivers on the busy, commercial street.