During the public comment portion of the March 4 Board of Supervisors meeting, Lee Roberts of Topping expressed concern that Middlesex County does not have an emergency clause to allow Shevonda Randall to move temporarily into a large camper trailer on her property.
Randall’s house trailer burned on Dec. 7, 2024 and Tim Daughtrey, owner of 3D’s Construction in Saluda, stepped up and gifted her family a large Dutch Park Home (camp trailer) for her home at 229 Remlik Drive near Urbanna.
County zoning rules will not allow her to move into the “camper” trailer because it is deemed a camper and zoning denies citizens living in a camper except when located in a campground.
“There should be no reason her family can’t setup the camper to live in under these circumstances,” said Roberts to the board. “Just under two miles away there lies hundreds of campers (at Bethpage Camp-Resort).
“There needs to be a provision in place that addresses emergency housing in the event of a disaster.”
“Hopefully, Middlesex County will come up with a plan that avoids the mistakes of North Carolina, where people who lost everything can’t accept temporary housing due to codes,” he said. “Instead, they can freeze to death. Codes and zoning came out of the need of the common good of the people. It’s about time that need is served.”
At the meeting, Randall pleaded with the board to allow her to move into the camp trailer. The five supervisors, zoning official David Kretz and Matt Walker, former planning director for the county and now county administrator, who was attending the meeting via Zoom, were all silent on the matter.
Roberts has set up a GofundMe account to raise funds to help Randall move her home. For those interested in helping Randall, the GoFundMe website is https://gofund.me/fa849207.
