WESTMINSTER : Council OKs Revised Mobile Home Law

After countless hours of debate over nearly three years, the City Council has revised an ordinance designed to protect mobile home owners in parks that are closed or converted to other uses.

“I’m glad we can finally get this behind us,” said Councilwoman Margie L. Rice. “I know [the revised ordinance] won’t please everyone, and there are those that won’t be happy with what we did, but at least we did something.”

The seemingly endless delays in revising the ordinance have been a result of the city’s attempts to draft a compromise between mobile home residents, who believed they had little recourse if evicted, and park owners, who generally oppose city attempts to regulate their businesses.

Under the agreement reached by council members Tuesday night, if a mobile home park is converted, owners must find space in a “comparable park” within a 50-mile radius to relocate residents--which could cost mobile home owners hundreds of thousands of dollars. If no comparable park can be found, or the residents cannot be relocated, the park owners must pay mobile home owners as much as $10,000, but residents would retain title to their homes.

“It’s a compromise, yes, but the residents got more in terms of what they were asking for,” said Hal Mintz, an attorney for a group of mobile home park owners.

But Stan Hirsch, one of the leaders of a group of mobile home park residents, said the ordinance does not go far enough.