Meadowland Village residents have 3 months to move ahead of a proposed data center
Residents of a Mason County mobile home park have three months to vacate their homes as a Fortune 50 company proposes building a data center on nearby land.
People living in Meadowland Village in Maysville recently received a letter from their landlord on behalf of DPD Property Management; the letter stated the park is under contract with a potential buyer.
The project developer is offering each resident up to $20,000 to cover moving expenses, but those expenses must be approved.
Pastor Greg Jones, who bought his home in the park seven years ago, described what he likes about the area.
“Quiet, man, quiet, oh yeah, no better place to live than out here man,” Jones said.
His response to the letter?
“And my reply was I don’t think that’s gonna work,” Jones said.
Roger Purcell, who is battling kidney disease, is another impacted resident. He has a ramp at his home that will need to be moved or rebuilt during the transition. A significant number of residents at the mobile home park are elderly and/or disabled. Now, everyone in the community is on edge.
“There’s no trailer parks around here enough to even absorb half of these trailers,” Purcell said.
Finding a new place to live is complicated by local laws. According to a Mason County ordinance, mobile homes are only allowed on rural residential or agricultural zoned areas. The lot size has to be five acres for agricultural land and one to two acres for rural residential land.
“Then you got water, electricity, sewage if your land don’t perk, that’s even twice as much,” Purcell said.
Resident Rico Roberts shared a similar sentiment about the offer for moving expenses.
“$20,000 ain’t nothing,” Roberts said.
The displacement comes as a Fortune 50 company submitted a proposal to build a data center on more than 2,000 acres of farmland beside a residential area in Maysville.
LEX 18 reached out to Dusty Porter and DPD Property Management regarding Meadowland Village but has not heard back.
In addition, Hank Graddy filed suit against Mason County on behalf of residents. Here is a link to that document.
