WESTMINSTER : Council Still Stumped on Mobile Home Rules

After three years of debate among city agencies and community groups, the City Council is still no closer to reaching a consensus on how to craft an ordinance to protect mobile home residents should their park close.

A non-binding poll conducted at Tuesday night’s council meeting showed there was little on which council members could agree in directing the city staff on key components of the ordinance.

Council members were polled, for example, on an aspect of the ordinance that would require park owners to find another space in a “comparable park” within a certain distance from Westminster.

Mayor Charles V. Smith thought it should be 50 miles; Councilwoman Margie L. Rice favored 100 miles; Councilwoman Charmayne S. Bohman wanted 70 miles, and Councilman Tony Lam wanted 35 miles. Councilman Frank G. Fry Jr. was absent because of illness.

Council members also were divided on other issues, such as how much to pay a displaced resident if the mobile home is deemed “unrelocatable.”

Smith and Lam said residents should be paid the appraised value of the mobile home but should not receive additional fees, as earlier plans suggested. Bohman abstained on the vote.

A frustrated Rice said, “To heck with this mess. I don’t want to vote on any more of it. I don’t like any of these options.”

However, out of six components to the ordinance, the council agreed on one: a $145-a-day living allowance for homeowners who must stay in hotels during a relocation, for a maximum of 20 days.

The proposed ordinance was prompted by complaints from mobile home residents, who said they have inadequate protection in the event of eviction.

The city has 18 mobile home parks, with an estimated 5,000 residents.

Park owners, however, generally oppose the measures as too costly and restrictive.

The city staff now must draft a complete version for possible approval at the Aug. 8 meeting. City Manager Bill Smith said he still is not sure what the final draft will contain.

“[Councilman] Fry could be the swing vote on a number of these issues,” he said.