Owners and residents of manufactured home communities in Garden City, Idaho, feel that city officials are trying to eliminate some or all of these communities.  “They’ve been chipping away at our rights for years and years,” Dustin Block, who owns 10 manufactured home communities, explained. “This city is trying to push ‘mobile home’ parks out of the city, and it’s dropping our property values.”

Irene Blair, 73, has lived 27 years in her manufactured home in the 39th Street Park in Garden City. She owns her house and pays $260 a month to rent the lot.

Garden City, Idaho, is a town of approximately 11,000 residents and is almost completely surrounded by Boise, but retains a separate municipal government. Garden City is part of the Boise / Nampa, Idaho, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Idaho Statesman tells MHProNews that a group of about 15 “mobile home park” owners have hired former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy to represent them, Block said. They’re hoping the council will agree to set up a city committee that includes manufactured home community owners. “We’re not opposed to change,” Block said. “Things change, and we’re OK with that. It needs to go at an acceptable rate.”

On a 3-1 vote on January 21, the Garden City Planning and Zoning commission approved the proposed additions to city code. A public hearing before the City Council is set for February 9. This is no small issue in a city of about 11,000 people where mobile or manufactured homes make up about a quarter of the city’s housing inventory. The city has about 60 manufactured and “mobile home parks” / communities, with about 1,033 spaces, according to the city planning department.

“Most of our park owners try to keep up their parks,” Mayor John Evans said. “But many were built before modern codes were passed and so are ‘grandfathered,’ “ he said. “A lot of them wouldn’t meet our current standards.”

Retired commercial and military pilot David B. Martin has been a minority partner in a “mobile home park” in Garden City for almost 30 years. Martin won’t say which park because he’s afraid of retaliation for speaking out against current and proposed regulations that city officials say are aimed at improving safety, livability and aesthetics. He was one of a half-dozen who spoke at a recent public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Martin said the city’s updates to its mobile / manufactured home laws in recent years seem aimed at writing the parks out of existence. “They are unfair to property owners and those who might be forced to move,” he said.

“I don’t ascribe negative motives,” Martin said. “I think city officials want to improve the tax base and the looks and the safety of Garden City. And they want to replace the ‘mobile homes’ there with regular homes in subdivisions.”

Jenah Thornborrow has worked for the Garden City Planning Department for 10 years, the past seven as director. She says that the two changes that have elicited the most concern from park owners are:

• Homes that are not brand new will have to have an engineer’s analysis to be reviewed and approved by the building official prior to installation, showing that the homes are sound and safe.

 • No additional homes can be moved into any manufactured/mobile home park / community that has had two or more notices within a five-year period for structures found by building officials to be dangerous and that have not been corrected by the owner within the deadline stipulated in the notice.

Thornborrow said the proposed changes were a product of a year’s worth of study and observations of issues by staff, the City Council and the public. “This is not meant to be an overhaul,” she said. “It’s meant to clarify some of the safety issues that have been noted.”

Planning officials in Boise and Nampa said last week that they do not have similar requirements in their codes. Thornborrow said the changes were developed by Garden City staff, not borrowed from other cities.

Boise Planning Director Hal Simmons said most of the city’s manufactured / mobile home parks / communities are in pretty good shape, but there have been some problems over the years.

In 2006, the city shut power off to the Overland Park Mobile Home Park after the owner failed to meet a deadline to fix electrical system and other violations. Local charitable groups helped residents find other places to live until repairs were made.

City officials believe that requiring a report from a private engineer will prevent dangerous structures from being imported into the city.  The owner of the home would pay the cost of the report, Thornborrow said. Block said a quick survey by park owners found that engineer reports would cost about $250, which some residents may not be able to afford.

Half of the people living in Boise’s 50 mobile / manufactured home parks / communities are seniors with a median annual income of $20,000, a 2005 study by Boise State University found. The study found 3,304 “mobile homes” among the city’s 77,950 housing units.

No data is available on what percentage of homes in parks / communities are owned by occupants rather than the park / community owners. City officials say there are more park-owned “mobile homes,” but Block and Martin said their sense is there are more occupant-owned homes.

Property owners say the proposal’s threshold of two dangerous building violations in five years is heavy-handed, particularly since park / community owners would be on the hook if an occupant-owned house was found to be in violation.

“We have basically no recourse,” Block said. “Property owners have no legal authority to go into houses they don’t own. We can ask them to get something fixed, but if they don’t, there’s not a whole lot we can do. The only thing we can do is evict them.”

The list of possible dangerous building violations is long. Since 1997, the dangerous buildings abatement code has listed violations such as blocked exits, loose stairways and buckled walls. However, the code also says a violation occurs “whenever, for any reason, the building or structure, or portion thereof, is manifestly unsafe for the purpose for which it is being used.”

Boise Chief Structural Inspector Bob Archibald, who does Garden City building inspections under contract, said the most common violations in Garden City involved structural integrity and life-safety issues. These include:

• Alterations to the engineered structural elements of the manufactured / mobile home, such as exterior openings and attachments like covered patios and garage/storage areas, and divisions into multifamily dwellings.

• Deterioration of roofs and floors from lack of maintenance and water damage.

• Windows and doors blocked or not the proper size.

• Excessive use of extension cords, illegal wiring and unmaintained outlets or fixtures.

• Improper heating alterations or installations.

Thornborrow said homeowners would have 30 days to begin repairs after receiving a final notice. ##

(Photo Credit: Idaho Statesman)

 

Article submitted by Sandra Lane to – Daily Business News – MHProNews.