Residents of a rural community near Kings Mountain banded together against a controversial zoning request that would have created an RV park in their community.

During last week’s county commissioners meeting, the request was brought before the board where it attracted a large audience.

Chris Martin, Cleveland County planning director, said there was a request to rezone 205 Ferris Road, located south of Kings Mountain near the South Carolina state line, from residential manufactured homes to neighborhood business conditional use with the intent to create a recreational vehicle park. 

Tanner McAbee made the request for the rezoning of the 25 acres of land which is currently vacant but housed mobile homes in the past.

It is a largely residential area with some agricultural uses and large vacant land tracts.

The land use plan recommends maintaining a residential rural area with anything non-residential located near the intersections of major highways.

The property is currently a mobile home park with a couple of empty mobile homes left on the property.

Martin said the rest of the 25 acres is vacant.

“County staff reviewed the site plan and determined it meets all the criteria and ordinances for an RV park,” Martin said.

The site plan included set backs, landscape screens, and a number of RV sites. When the case was presented to the planning board, members recommended approval with a 5-1 vote.

Martin said the planning board felt the approval of an RV park wouldn’t be any more impactful than the previous use of the land for a mobile home park and cited its proximity to the Kings Mountain State Park and Crowders Mountain.

The park would be created in three phases with 15 sites in the first phase and 68 in the second. The third phase would add storage but no additional sites.

During the public hearing section of the meeting, around a dozen people spoke out against the rezoning request and implored commissioners to deny it.

Julie Waseman, whose property overlooks the mobile home park, said the creation of an RV park would increase the density by 200% and is contrary to Cleveland County’s comprehensive land use plan, which promotes new development at lower densities. 

She cited concerns about having only one road in and out of the community and increased traffic and said it posed a public health and safety risk.

Waseman said a petition in opposition of the park was signed by 76 residents in the neighborhood.

“It is not in harmony with our residential neighborhood,” she said.

Jonas Hanson, a nearby property owner, said the approval of the mobile home park was a black eye for Cleveland County. Hanson said when that zoning request was approved, the owners promised to screen the park but that promise wasn’t kept. He cited shootings, fires and criminal activity.

“This is terrible,” he said. “Cleveland County does not need another black eye.”

Other residents worried it would reduce the value of their property and expressed concerns about the transient nature of the people who would be attracted to the RV park.

Bill Rice said he has lived in RV parks in the past, and they are normally located in more accessible places.

“This is going to end up in squalor,” he said.

McAbee addressed some of the concerns and said traffic would be at a minimum since people would only be coming to check in and check out and would otherwise be spending their time at the park. 

“This will be a full-time job for me,” he said. “It has to be presentable. It has to be kept up.”

He pointed out that the property is already zoned for mobile homes.

McAbee spent time on the land his whole life and said he plans to make it his top priority.

“This is not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle,” he said. “The biggest problem is change, people don’t like change.”

He said one way or the other, changes would happen.

"I acquired this property to make use of it,” he said. "I want to change it for the good, not the bad. This is going to be good for Kings Mountain. Kings Mountain is up and coming.”

Mark Simpson, McAbee’s father-in-law, spoke in support of the plan.

“Cleveland County is an up and growing area,’ he said. “Anybody who thinks that casino area is not going to grow and expand out, they’re out of touch with reality.”

He said it is already zoned for a mobile home park so something will be there, regardless of the outcome.

Commissioners asked about what is located in the surrounding areas, and Martin said it was different variations of residential.

“It seems to me, we’d be making a noncompliant area out of a compliant area,” said Commissioner Ronnie Whetstine. 

Whetstine made a motion to deny the request, and it was unanimously voted against.

Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com