Squatters continue to be a problem for the Ceres Police Department at the unfinished Tuscany Village housing subdivision and the now defunct Lazy Wheels Mobile Home Park, Police Chief Trenton Johnson said last week.
At the conclusion of the Jan. 12 Ceres City Council meeting, Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra asked for an update on the situation at both trouble spots. Vierra, who frequently monitors the Tuscany Village site in her district, noted that garage doors of some of the unfinished houses were closed instead of being opened, making her suspicious that they were occupied by trespassers. She also noted that fences were being knocked over.
“At Tuscany Village we are continuing to have people trespass on that property,” confirmed Chief Johnson. “It’s continuous. I’ve given orders to the officers that anyone found on that property will be arrested, especially after the incident that they’ve dumped the oil in the drain.”
In December Ceres Police arrested squatter Jose Gutierrez, 47, of Ceres after surveillance video showed him dumping an unknown quality of oil into the storm drain at the site.
Tuscany Village was approved in 2006 with an accompanying commercial strip in front which was finished over a decade ago. The mortgage crisis of 2008 and the COVID pandemic of 2020 and 2021 caused delays in the start of construction until 2022 – but didn’t get far. Some of the homes were close to completion and some weren’t fully roofed when rising inflation and interest rates forced a halt to building. The 40-home project stalled due to its financial issues and was foreclosed upon by the financing institution.
In October 2024, a planned partnership with the Stanislaus County Regional Housing Authority and A&M Affordable housing developer to finish the project fell apart.
In recent years the dormant site, largely out of view of Whitmore Avenue traffic, became a magnet for homeless persons, trash, vandalism and criminal activity.
Johnson said he’s been talking with City Manager Doug Dunford about the city placing a lien against the property to recover the city’s costs for officers each time they have to deal with problems at Tuscany Village.
“It takes up a lot of our time. We have to go search every house. It’s time that we don’t have.”
Lazy Wheels
Chief Johnson noted that there was a recent fire in a trailer at the former Lazy Wheels site but there was no confirmation that it was started by squatters.
Lazy Wheels was terminated as a mobile home park by its owner as of Nov. 1, 2025.
“The city is in the transition between it being a trailer park with the state and the owner taking it back over but it’s still private property,” Chief Johnson explained. “It’s posted and as long as the signs are still up so anyone found on that property, the owner has given us permission to arrest. If they are found we will arrest them.”
Dunford said unwinding Lazy Wheels’ designation as a trailer park has been fraught with red tape since the state Housing & Community Department (HCD) has total oversight over mobile home parks. That agency told Dunford that property owner Anthony Nowaid must get in touch with HCD in order to call for a state inspection to confirm that the utilities have been turned off. Until an inspection is done, Lazy Wheels is still considered an active mobile home park, said Dunford.
“The ball is now in his court to get this done,” said Dunford regarding Nowaid.
Once the state declares Lazy Wheels as abandoned, the site may be bulldozed of the remaining eyesore buildings, trailers and debris.
Nowaid, who is an out-of-town owner, estimates that clean-up could cost him as much as $200,000.
Nowaid is considering possible uses for his property, which the city rezoned in 2010 so that it cannot be used in the future as a mobile home park.
Former Kmart building concerns
Councilwoman Cerina Otero used the occasion of a light Jan. 12 agenda to ask for an update on the former Kmart property which has yet to be converted into a Public Storage. Dunford said Economic Development Manager Julian Aguirre has been speaking to the owner about cleaning up the site. Complicating matters is that the Kmart property was subdivided into five parcels, each with a different owner.
In October 2021 the city approved a development plan to allow Evergreen Devco, Inc. to convert the former Kmart building of 84,000-square-feet into a Public Storage self-storage facility while filling the former parking lot with businesses like Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, Quik Stop convenience store and gas station and Dutch Bros coffee kiosk. The only development to take place thus far has been the Dutch Bros and Raising Cane’s.
“It’s my understanding they’re having some financial hardships and so they’ve put their (Public Storage) building, I think, on hold,” Dunford told the council. “And once they come out of that hardship then they’ll resume trying to install the storage facility in that area.”
A 5,828-square-foot Quik Stop building and gas island is planned to be constructed east of the existing bus stop along Herndon Avenue. The Quik Stop building is intended to be sized for an additional retail use.
Two other parcels are earmarked for a 2,500-square-foot restaurant with drive-thru lane; as well as a 1,500-square-foot oil change shop. In 2024 the Planning Commission unanimously approved a site plan to build a 2,619-square-foot Pollo Campero restaurant on the vacant site next door to Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers but the business withdrew those plans.
