BERLIN – As the lawsuit regarding occupancy at White Horse Park moves slowly ahead, the fulltime residents at the heart of the issue say they’re still waiting for a chance to be heard.
The residents who filed a lawsuit against Worcester County in November to stop the county’s plan to enforce seasonal occupancy restrictions believe the county’s motion to dismiss the case is just the latest attempt to suppress them. Still upset about the fact that they weren’t given a chance to speak in support of legislation that would have allowed them to remain in their homes, now they’re worried they won’t get their day in court.
“They don’t want us to have a public hearing in any way, shape or form,” said Sally Connolly, one of the residents hoping to continue to live in the park year-round.
Connolly purchased her lot in White Horse Park 20 years ago, when she was working as director of human resources for a government contractor. She thought the waterfront community was the perfect location for an affordable second home.
In the years since, she’s gone through a marriage, a divorce and an early retirement prompted by health concerns. In the wake of a tumultuous few years and heading in to the recession of 2008, Connolly made the decision to sell her house and move fulltime to White Horse Park. She says if she was given documentation regarding occupancy restrictions when she initially purchased the lot, it wasn’t something that came to mind years later when she moved to Berlin permanently.
“There were people living here fulltime,” she said. “The people in the office, they all knew I was moving in.”
Though it started as a place for vacationers to park their RVs in the 1980s, White Horse Park today is a 465-lot community of park model and modular homes. Connolly became one of roughly 55 fulltime residents of the community.
Those residents worriedly started contacting elected officials in 2018 when they were advised the county was going to begin enforcing occupancy restrictions — something that hadn’t been done in the park’s more than 30-year history. According to county code, as a campground subdivision, between Sept. 30 and April 1 the park’s units cannot be occupied for more than 30 consecutive days or an aggregate of 60 days.
When then-Sen. Jim Mathias suggested the residents hire legal representation, Connolly contacted attorney Hugh Cropper. Though he’d intended to turn the case down, their story — the fact that they’d been encouraged to stay full-time to keep an eye on the community, that they’d been required by the county to build homes to the same specifications as year-round residences and that they paid property taxes like other year-round residents — convinced him to take the case
“For many, they had nowhere to go and I felt they needed a voice so I changed my mind,” Cropper said.
In the year-and-a-half since, Cropper drafted various renditions of a text amendment allowing the existing fulltime residents, a group of about 55 mostly senior citizens, to remain in their homes. They were in the meeting room in September when the text amendment that Commissioner Josh Nordstrom was prepared to introduce was instead immediately rejected by his fellow commissioners.
“It was pretty pitiful, all these people with their wheelchairs and walkers,” Connolly said, recalling the group’s frustration.
When the county proceeded to send the park’s permanent residents a letter outlining fines that would be levied on people who didn’t abide by the seasonal occupancy restrictions, Cropper initiated an administrative appeal and lawsuit on the enforcement plan.
“In my opinion the county has waived the right to fine people,” Cropper said when he submitted the appeals. “They’ve known about these year-round occupancies since the 1990s.”
In the months since the lawsuit was filed, there have been a few changes. One of the plaintiffs, 81-year-old Phyllis Rosenbaum, has passed away. The White Horse Park Board of Directors is also now officially a party in the case.
“The Board of Directors has an obligation to enforce the recorded declaration of restrictions for White Horse Park, including the limitation on year-round occupancy of lots in the Park,” said James Almand, the board’s attorney. “Over 400 of the 465 lot owners are in compliance with that occupancy limitation, which has existed since the park was developed and the first lot sold. The majority of owners do not want the park changed to a year-round community as the plaintiffs in the case are demanding. Therefore, the board had to join the case to let its voice be heard on behalf of the community.”
Cropper, however, maintains that no one is trying to change White Horse Park.
“I only want these 55 people to be able to stay until they die, move out or sell,” he said. “They’ve been there another winter now and it’s a ghost town. Everybody that can afford to comply (with the seasonal restrictions) has complied.”
As far as the lawsuit, a hearing regarding the motion to dismiss filed by Worcester County last month has been set for April 16. Court documents filed by attorney Victoria Shearer on behalf of the county argue that the White Horse Park Declaration of Restrictions made it clear the facility was for seasonal use.
“Plaintiffs presumably were provided with a copy of the declaration at the closings when they purchased their properties in White Horse Park,” court documents read. “Even if they were not, they are presumed to know the contents of the declaration for the subdivision in which they live, and it does not permit year-round occupancy (regardless of what any realtor or builder allegedly told one or more of the plaintiffs).”
The documents state the county has the right to enforce the law.
“Plaintiffs admit that they are in violation of the declaration and the county code, and they provide nothing in their amended complaint that entitles them to be exempt from the law,” the documents read.
Connolly, referencing the 30 pages accompanying the motion to dismiss, pointed out the county was using taxpayer dollars to pay a Baltimore-area attorney to fight the case.
“I’d like to know what the taxpayers would have to say about that,” she said.
According to Kim Moses, the county’s public information officer, the county brought in an outside attorney “due to the time involved in this case in addition to an existing heavy caseload.” She said the cost of the lawsuit to date had been $19,782.02.
Connolly stressed residents who’d filed suit seek to simply stay in their homes without facing fines up to $1,000 a day from the county.
As the parties wait for next month’s hearing, Cropper this week submitted a new text amendment that would allow the permanent residents to remain in their homes. It would allow property owners who resided in the campground subdivision continuously for a minimum of one year prior to June 2018 to remain in their homes until they move, pass away or the unit is sold. Cropper acknowledged it was similar to what he’d proposed last year.
“I hope the commissioners have now come to their senses and they understand the issue and the humanitarian crisis more clearly,” he said.
The text amendment could be considered by the Worcester County Planning Commission in April. Then, if introduced by the county commissioners, there would be a public hearing.
“When you’re looking at the county code, and not people, it’s easy to say we’re not changing the code,” he said. “When you see people in their 80s packing up and moving out of their homes, that’s a different story.”
