PALM SPRINGS — The elderly and disabled residents of Sunshine Village — nearly all those living in the decades-old mobile home park — are fretting they might lose their homes to construction of a Wal-Mart.
The Palm Springs Land Development Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to recommend a commercial zoning change to the 18-acre community of about 70 homes on 10th Avenue North. The village council on Thursday is expected to vote on a first reading of the zoning change.
"I am on disability and fixed income," resident Karren Edgar said. "Where am I going to go?"
State law says that property owners must give residents six months' notice before eviction and either pay part of relocation costs or meet other compensation requirements.
Cornerstone Palm Springs LLC plans to do that, said Bonnie Miskel, an attorney representing the company. She said Cornerstone expects to go beyond those requirements by, for example, covering all relocation costs.
"This area provides significant affordable housing," she said.
But many of the 30 or so residents attending Tuesday's meeting shook their heads and wagged their fingers.
Also skeptical was a Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County attorney representing Sunshine Village's neighborhood association.
State law that protects residents in mobile home parks calls for Palm Springs to verify that adequate comparable housing exists before approving this zoning change, attorney Shane Weaver said.
"We don't think it will be possible to move them," Weaver said before the meeting. "There's not a lot of places for these folks to rent."
Cornerstone's application says that a shopping center is planned on the property. Wal-Mart isn't named specifically, but residents and Weaver said that conversations with Cornerstone representatives indicate the massive corporation plans to move in.
Cornerstone next month anticipates submitting a site plan for the project, and the village council voted in February to change its comprehensive plan to accommodate a shopping center on the property.
