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Neighbors 'scared at all hours' of Alpine Woods crime

Local government attorneys and a non-profit legal agency are bearing down in an effort to clean up the crime-ridden and unsafe Alpine Woods Resort.

During a hearing before Superior Court Judge J. Thomas “Tommy” Davis on Monday, County Attorney Russ Burrell and Hendersonville City Attorney Sam Fritschner laid out a framework for handing control of the 80-unit park to a special master who would be empowered to collect rent, pay bills and make repairs.
“It’s going to be basically the person who will operate the park,” Burrell said.
City and county officials have been working since February on a way to legally force owner Warren Newell to clean up Alpine Woods Resort, repair the trailers and fix water and sewer lines. The attorneys have in mind appointing a private attorney as special master. The special master in turn would hire a property manager who would take care of the park until it’s cleaned up.
“They will collect the rent, operate it from day to day, approve and disapprove prospective tenants and evict tenants, pay the operating bills and debts,” Burrell said. “The judge is not going to be out there day to day. If the county or city is out there that imposes a due process burden on every decision they make. There’s a need for action that doesn’t delay it forever.”
Under the direction of the special master, the manager would use the rent money to fund repairs. The city has inspected many of the trailers and condemned eight for building code violations. Newell bought the 7.75-acre tract in 2007 for $526,000. Under the proposed order, he would retain ownership under an agreement that would require him to maintain the units in livable condition.
“If there’s money left over (from the rent), he gets it,” Burrell said. “You could spend a ton of money repairing. It’s not being taken away from him but the running of a nuisance sure as heck is because that’s what that place is.”
The Hendersonville Lightning has reported on poor conditions at the 80-unit trailer park including a lack of drinking water, sewage on the ground, the absence of central heat in the trailers, holes in the roof and mold and mildew.


Public nuisance

The lawsuit filed on April 28 by District Attorney Greg Newman, Burrell and Fritschner relies on a section of North Carolina law that provides for the government to shut down or require repairs of property that has become a public nuisance and subjects the owner to fines, liens, restrictions on its use and forfeiture. The lawsuit is supported by 16 affidavits from law enforcement officers, first responders and neighbors alleging that the park is infested with crime, unsanitary conditions and
Alpine Woods “has a general reputation among citizens … as a public nuisance … and as a place where numerous unlawful activities have taken place and where police services are regularly needed,” the lawsuit said. The park “has been operated in a such a manner as to make (it) indecent, disgraceful and intolerable to residents nearby.” The lawsuit asked the judge to declare the property a public nuisance and issue an order barring Newell from operating it.
The attorneys say the public nuisance law allows a judge to order the “abatement” of the bad conditions that make property a nuisance but then gives little guidance on what that might entail.


13 tenants suing landlord


Tom Gallagher AnnieFosterTom Gallagher, an attorney with Pisgah Legal Services, is pictured with Annie Foster, one of the Alpine Woods tenants suing landlord Warren Newell. Meanwhile, lawyers for Pisgah Legal Services have filed a total of 13 small claims lawsuits against Newell seeking repayment of rent money tenants have paid for substandard housing. Newell and his attorney, Whitney Staton, declined to comment when approached by a reporter outside the small claims courtroom.


“Our ultimate goal is the same (as the city’s and county’s), which is to make sure proper housing is available to all the tenants in Western North Carolina and particularly in Alpine Woods,” Tom Gallagher, an attorney for the legal aid agency, said before a small claims hearing on Tuesday. “Our only concern is the speed at which the county and city move forward with efforts to close down the park.”
Abruptly closing the park is not a viable option, Burrell told Judge Davis the day before.
“There is not that much affordable housing in Western North Carolina to accommodate these folks,” he said. “The other outcome is the worst outcome, leaving it as it is.”
Firefighters won’t go without a police escort, the affidavits say. Sheriff’s deputies have made more than 80 arrests from May 2007 until April 2014, the sheriff said, for charges that include drug violations, assaults, possessing stolen property, safe cracking, theft, making threats, assaulting law officers, carrying concealed weapons and public drunkenness.


‘Scared at all hours of the day and night’


The lawsuit contains affidavits from five officers with the sheriff’s department, all of whom said they were familiar with the park off Old Sunset Hill Road and personally dealt with repeated calls about drug dealers, fights and drunkenness.
Eric Capell, a captain with the county’s Emergency Medical Service, said EMS won’t respond to calls to Alpine Woods without law enforcement escort. Capell said he had responded to emergency calls for drug overdoses, fights, stab wounds, gunshot wounds and dog bites. The first responders all said the residents they encounter at the trailer park “are usually impaired by drugs or alcohol and often become belligerent.”
Nine neighbors or owners of property near Alpine Woods made sworn statements saying they had seen loitering, trash and trespassing. A neighbor who lives on property “less than 5 feet away” from the park said she had seen a male “urinating in my yard while going to Alpine Woods” and had been bothered by loud music and verbal abuse.
“Because of the illegal and disruptive nature of the property, I am scared to be alone in my home,” she said. The crime and poor conditions are causing her property to lose value, she said. A manager at Manual Woodworkers, which is next door to Alpine Woods, said employees and customers “are in danger due to the criminal element associated with Alpine Woods.” A man who lives less than 1,500 feet away from the trailer park said that because of the “illegal and disruptive” activity at Alpine Woods “I am scared at all hours of the day and night to be on my own property.”