Fewer Problems at Bulow RV Park, But Evictions and Code Violations Loom as Deadline Approaches

The conflict between residents of the Bulow RV Park off Old Kings Road is not as intense as it was last year. Numerous issues have been resolved. But some problems persist, with more than a dozen residents still out of compliance with county and park rules, and with water pressure and water cleanliness issues now coming to the fore. The county continues to attempt to mediate a solution, with limited success. In the assistant county attorney’s characterization, the matter can be “intractable.”

The county’s and the park’s enforcement of rules has been suspended since last January. A lot has been accomplished since, with most people who were out of compliance now brought into compliance. But holdouts remain. Those rules can’t be suspended indefinitely, and the County Commission, which wrestled with the issue again on Wednesday, is running out of patience.




“I would say that January date is it. There’s got to be enough pressure put on that the solution at the end may be difficult,” County Commissioner Dave Sullivan said. “I think we’re at that point.” That’ll mean code enforcement violations issued by the county. It’ll mean evictions ordered by the RV park company. (See: “Bulow RV Park Has 6 Months to Solve Compliance Crisis, Pledging Not to Evict Anyone. But a Solution is Elusive.”)

But County Commission Chair Andy Dance is holding out for some hope that the company and residents will find their way to further resolutions, whether by taking care of safety issues with trees, utility issues or code-compliance issues.

Stan Martin, representing the company, was not (locally identified as MHC Bulow LLC), applauded the compliance achieved since January, but had little hope for too many further gains by January. The remaining 13 residents may simply not comply, he said. “We have really one remedy under the law, and that’s eviction,” he said. “I doubt we’ll end up, frankly, in January, with 100 percent compliance, but it will be better than the number is today, which is significantly better than the number was in January.”




In January the commission approved a six-month stay on the county’s enforcement of code violations there, paired with a pledge from the RV park’s management not to evict anyone. The half year was to give residents time to comply with local regulations and RV park rules. Sixty-three tenants there had fallen out of compliance and were facing eviction.

Some dwellings had attached as opposed to abutting structures. The rental agreement includes a six-month occupancy limit, but it was not rigorously enforced. The county’s development order allows the campground as a whole to build certain facilities like showers, a clubhouse, a meeting hall, bathroom facilities and the like. The allowance does not extend to individual campsites. Accessory structures violating the rules were built at some of the campsites, like porches or additions or screened-in rooms. Trailers could have steps or other accessories by permit, but the additions would not be allowed to be attached to the trailer.

By July, the campsites out of compliance were down to 18. There had been no evictions. Five more expected to be in compliance by the end of October or November, according to Martin. “if we think that the units now in compliance, we want to make sure that the county agrees with us,” Martin said. “But unfortunately, we haven’t had any success in getting the county out there. I think we got an email back that said that they wouldn’t be doing that. So you know, these are the numbers that I’m reporting now are what we believe to be true, but they haven’t been confirmed by the county.” (County officials said they will do a site visit.)




Barbara Page is one of those non-compliance hold-outs. She has a deck and an addition in a unit that had already been added on to when she bought it. She’s lived at Bulow since 2016. “I’m holding out because I have nowhere to go, and if I have to live through the eviction process, I guess that’s what I’m going to have to do,” she said. She cannot afford the cost of tearing down the additions, nor the money to pay for reconstruction. She’s put the place up for sale for six months. There’s been no discussion with management on resolving the issue, nor has she initiated such discussions.

Speaking to the commission, Martin said he’d strongly suggest to Page “that she reached out to somebody, if she’s seeking our assistance in this regard, and we’d be happy to talk to her like we have all of the other guests that have noncompliance issues that have reached out to us.”

“Well, she’s here today, so I would suggest you be proactive and talk to her,” Dance said.

Residents of the park have also complained about the water utility. The park has its own water and sewer operation. The county is not a party to it, and has no say in the utility system, a fenced-in facility off of Old Kings Road, which is privately owned and run by U.S. Water, a contractor. The utility last issued a boil-water notice on July 12, and received a warning letter from the Department of Environmental Protection requiring a ground storage tank to be replaced, but nothing more serious. “We did not find any regulatory actions,” County Administrator Heidi Petito said. “We did not find it to be under any consent order. They are in compliance.”




The utility’s water plant has a permitted operating capacity of 88,000 gallons per day, with a permit to expand capacity to 171,000 gallons per day. The park’s ownership has the option to connect either to Palm Coast water and sewer utilities or to FGUA, the Florida Governmental Utility Authority that provides services to such subdivisions as Plantation Bay and other locations in the county and around the state. “But that’s not a mandatory force connection, that would be an option to them,” Petito said.

Greg Wayne said he’s owned his home since 2008. “Basically corporations are like people,” he said. “You get some good ones. You get a bunch in the middle. And you got some ones that are not so good. And that’s this corporation that owns Bulow. They have been draining us for years, and it’s got the people just looking for somebody that could be a friend in some of the things that affect us. The water situation has gone on and on and on,” with two boil-water notices over the past year and water-pressure that yields half a gallon per minute, as he described it.

Susan McGuire, another resident, said there’d been four boil-water notices in the past year, not two. The company was providing some bottled water, but not enough. “Safety is what we’re concerned about. People are not comfortable with the water,” she said. Richard Ricks, who’s lived at Bulow for almost 11 years, said he’s “watched this place go from pretty well maintained when I first moved there, to start to fall apart.” He claimed few people showed dup to the workshop Wednesday evening out of fear, though he did not provide evidence to that effect. ” Some of them live in fear to even go to the office and speak to these people because of the way they’ve been treated in office,” he said.

Dance, the commission chairman, wants the county to get to the point where problems at the Bulow RV park don’t recur, with a process in place ensuring that. But he was not hearing of such a process–either from the company representative or from the county, other than enforcement of codes and rules once the January deadline passes.




“This situation has developed over many, many years under their noses,” Moylan said. “We put a spotlight on it. They are trying to deal with it, but they also have some culpability here, because they allowed it to happen and turned a blind eye. They did not give us annual reporting requirements that they were supposed to do. They didn’t keep the register of guests that they’re supposed to do by state law, for the six month occupancy limit. About a year ago, when they came in here, they said that the approvals they gave for people to build these extensions, that was ancient history, when in fact some of them were just several years ago. So they don’t have completely clean hands. But at the same time, they’re trying to work this out. This is an intractable problem of local government that we’re trying to wrestle with.” But from the county’s perspective, the county has to stick to its building code and its own development order for the property, he said.

Dance also noted that the problems have “morphed” from just non-compliance issues to other problems at the site. “We’ll try to pull everything together, I would hope anyway, in some type of format where we get are able to get back with you on on progress that’s being made,” he told the park residents.