LUMBERTON – The Robeson County Board of Commissioners on Monday evening voted down two requests for special use permits during public hearings that would allow for the establishment of RV parks in the Lumberton area.

The board met for a regular monthly meeting in the board room of the Robeson County Administration Center at 550 N. Chestnut St.

Local resident Lloyd Ander Hammond Jr. asked the eight-member board to consider the establishment of an RV park in a residential agricultural district that is “more or less” located on Henry Hammond Road in the Saddletree Township area.

That property, which encompasses 6.04 acres, is vacant. Hammond was proposing 23 parking areas for the park.

Gary L. Locklear, the assistant county attorney who was sitting in for K. Robert Davis, said, from a legal staff’s position, he could not find in “our grid a permitted use for an RV park. That’s going to cause some problem going forward.

“We can see if the applicant is able to make a case – that is, if they have their paperwork and everything else in order. If they don’t, you can deny it,” he said. “If they’ve got it in order, and you’re likely to approve it — at some point, we’re going to have to come up with some regulations.”

Locklear said Jackie Eason, the county’s assistant director of Community Development, could expound on some of the possibilities that could happen should the board allow it without regulation.

“In terms of what would start out as an RV park, could end up as a mobile home park. That’s a situation,” he said.

Generally, RV parks are located in areas that are more accessible, such as off Interstate 95, Eason said during her address to the board. When the discussion involves locating the park in a residential district, she added, “Then you are impacting the homes that are around. And the serenity of the community. There is a possibility that at some point in time they would have to go in and add turn lanes for a mobile home park, which we’re talking about traffic issues.

“And then you’re talking about in and out,” she said. “About taking folks in the park, how long they’re staying. Some people are traveling nurses, and they like to stay more than a few days.”

The standard stay — the temporary stay — according to Eason, is six months in an RV park.

“We don’t have an RV ordinance, and we need one,” she said.

With the burden on Hammond to convince the board that he qualifies and meets the standards for a special use permit, the applicant said, “I just want to have a small RV park. I want to have an RV park and do the best I can.”

The proposed RV park, he said, would be north of Lumberton and roughly two miles off the interstate.

Among others, he noted, he would like to attract working class people, traveling nurses and such construction workers as those who are now working along the interstate.

Commissioner David Edge, who represents District 6 where the planned park would be situated, voiced concern over the site. He said Hammond’s plan to start out with just four parking sites in the park sounded more like “a parking lot.”

Dwayne Hunt, a resident of that community, said he was opposed to the idea. That, he added, was due to the concerning clientele that the park might draw.

“I don’t want anything to come into the community to give us any more problems than we already have,” Hunt said.

He then distributed photographs of the property to the board as “evidence of what kind of location we’ll have.”

In his rebuttal, Hammond said, the property has improved since he inherited the land. “I have made improvements. I know that,” he said. “It’s a fact.”

Edge said he had personally visited the area and took his own photos on his phone.

“It’s a disgrace to me to the county,” he said of the existing property. “I do not feel like it would be an advantage to the county.”

He opposed the park.

The motion was made to deny Hammond the special use permit, which was seconded by Commissioner Wixie Stephens.

The vote was unanimous, 8-0, to deny the permit.

At that point, Eason returned to the podium to provide details for local resident Jessica Branch’s request for a special use permit that would allow for the establishment of an RV park on 13.19 acres in a residential agricultural district.

Like Hammond, she’s the applicant and owner.

As proposed, the park would be located on Old Whiteville Road in Wisharts Township.

Locklear, the assistant county attorney, said the comments he had made earlier concerning the Hammond case – the county not having an RV park as a permitted use – applies equally in this case.

“With this request,” Eason said, “she’s requesting 20 lots. She lives across the road so she will be in the general area at all times. But the same consideration of things that we talked about earlier about RV parks. Generally, they’re not in a heavily residential area. They’re generally located off interstates, and that makes it easier for them to get on and off.”

Although Eason said Branch had converted an old building on the property into an Airbnb, the applicant later said it is no longer being used in that way. It is a rental, she said.

The park would be situated 5.6 miles from the interstate, according to Branch.

At this time, a couple of RVs already exist in the planned park area, Chairman Tom Taylor said.

”Personally,” he continued, “I don’t feel that’s the place to have one.”

After a neighbor, Beverly Jackson, spoke in favor of the park, a swarm of folks — more than 15 – stood opposed to the park in their community.

Those in opposition had been asked to stand.

“We, as a county, are not opposed to RV parks,” Edge said.

Resident Vincent Phillips, one of three representatives of the group who was allowed to speak, told the board that “we feel like we’re entitled here to peace.” He said he was tired of “having things pushed on us.”

Allen Hester said the proposed RV park location adjoins his family farm: “We don’t need riff-raff and noise.”

Once Taylor made the motion to deny the request, Stephens seconded the motion and the ask was unanimously voted down.

In other business:

– The board unanimously approved a special use permit to allow for the establishment of a used car dealership in a residential agricultural district. That dealership would sit on a combined 1.17-acre tract “more or less” on Norment Road in the Lumberton Township.

John T. Allen was the applicant, and John and Judy Allen would be the owners.

At this time, the site has a single-family dwelling and accessory building on it.

—The board tabled another request for a special use permit that would allow for the building of a used car dealership in a residential agricultural district on Norment Road.

The next Robeson County Board of Commissioners meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Aug. 7.