Belle River trailer park tenants protest new development

Rochester Place Golf & Resort

Dozens of tenants living in a Belle River trailer park say they are being unfairly evicted from the property.

They say they have six months to move their trailers as new development takes over.

Rochester Place Golf and Resort has a new vision, new ultra-modern units that will attract people from all over Ontario.

But in order to make this happen, around 115 current tenants are being forced to move their homes.

That doesn't sit well with Debby Robert and her neighbours.

They received an email on April 30th informing them they have to move their trailer by November 7th to allow for new development.

"You can't just hook it up to a truck and tow it," says Robert.

Robert bought the trailer last August.

She says the property owners should have informed her of their future plans.

"He should have said, 'Hold on, I got these new places coming in, maybe you would be interested in one of those," Robert says.

The letter states current tenants have 4 options: buy a new unit that's being built, move their trailer to the south end of the resort, remove their trailer from the grounds or if they choose to leave the trailer, it will come at the expense of $1500.

"He's given us 6 months notice to get out. Obviously he knew ahead of time," Robert says.

But President Paul St. Pierre says that's not true.

"I didn't know that I was going to development that grand of a space," he says.

He says this was a tough business decision to make.

"I took the existed ground and created two distinct spaces where we've offered people to relocate. What we call the tree line south and that will give me all the space I need to be able to do all the development," adds St. Pierre.

He plans on building 188 news units in the first phase of this development.