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[pct-l] USFS forcing Boulder Oaks to close



FYI from 

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/tue/metro/news_1m29evict.html  

The store is already closed. This is about 25 miles north of Campo.
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 Forest Service wins fight to reclaim 7.5  acres, shut down trailer park

 By Jonathan Heller 
 STAFF WRITER 

 June 29, 1999 

 After a six-year skirmish with the defiant owner of a backcountry trailer
park, the U.S. Forest Service has won a court battle to reclaim the 7.5
acres of land in the Cleveland National Forest and shut down the park.

 The ruling includes an eviction order for Boulder Oaks Resort's 52
tenants. But the owner, Thomas Peckham of Pennsylvania, said he is planning
to appeal.

 "If everybody would give in to the government, when are the restrictions
going to stop?" Peckham said in phone interview from his home in Erie,
Penn. "Somebody is going to have to put their foot down sometime, and it
might as well be me."

 The government has been trying since 1993 to shut down the dusty trailer
park 60 miles east of San Diego, near Pine Valley, citing numerous code
violations.

 Problems at the park included everything from unsanitary restrooms to
unsafe electrical wiring to illegal underground fuel tanks, federal and
county officials said.

 A federal court judge issued a summary judgment May 25 granting exclusive
possession of the land to the Forest Service. The ruling capped a legal
battle that began in 1994 after Peckham and many of the tenants ignored an
order to vacate.

 Federal marshals served eviction notices June 15, giving residents until
tommorrow to vacate. Most of the residents have requested extensions and
will have as late as Aug. 15 to find new housing, Stutler said.

 Peckham, meanwhile, has been ordered to remove all the buildings, which
include a boarded-up general store, gas station and a few log cabins, and
restore the land to its natural state. A federal judge is still deciding
whether Peckham will have to pay to remove all the underground fuel tanks
or share in that cost with the government.

 The government has issued a relocation packet to each tenant, with
information on nearby trailer parks and social-service agencies. Most of
the tenants live on welfare.

 Copyright 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. 



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