November 16, 2004|By Larry Carson | Larry Carson,SUN STAFF
Three leaders of the 241 families at Aladdin Village Mobile Home Park in Jessup last night denounced a key element in a Howard County Council bill designed to help them when their park, like others along the U.S. 1 corridor, closes for redevelopment.
The council also regained a fifth member as former three-term Republican Councilman Charles C. Feaga was sworn in to fill the western county District 5 seat vacated last month when Allan H. Kittleman resigned to take his late father's state Senate seat.
The mobile home park bill, sponsored by east Columbia Democrat David A. Rakes, would create zoning for a temporary 60- to 65-lot trailer park near Aladdin as a way of helping people displaced there and from other parks.
The measure would allow a new park within 50 feet of an existing one, but only for a maximum of 15 years. Individual residents could stay no longer than five years, which is what drew sharp criticism from the resident leaders and lawyer David Carney, who represents Aladdin's owners.
Sharply higher land values in the old commercial corridor -- prompted partly by the county's rezoning this year designed to spur redevelopment along U.S. 1 -- have created the problem of longtime trailer parks closing. Rakes' bill was designed to help, but residents said that hope is in vain given the five-year time limit.
"This is an outrage, as many of the residents have 25- to 30-year mortgages on their homes," testified Tiffany Davis, 30, a five-year resident and president of the residents' association formed to fend off financial disaster.
"Who's going to pay for the cost of moving a second time? One thing we all agree on. We don't want to lose our homes," said Davis, a mother of four young children.
Carney said the park owners likely will not give residents the required one-year notice of closing for another two to three years, but Davis, joined by association Vice President Cindy Brown, 50, and Secretary Laura Taylor, 43, argued that the time limit in the bill is so impractical that it will increase their problems. They fear they will lose their homes, their investment, and be forced out of Howard County if the local government does not help.
Brown and Taylor said they have nearly new double-wide manufactured homes that must be broken in half to move -- a process that can cost up to $20,000.
"That's my kids' college fund," Taylor said. "I work here. My husband works here. I've got two children in college and three more coming up that I want to go to college."
Carney said the park owners agree that the five-year limit suggested by county planning officials as a way to cycle more mobile homes through the transitional park is not practical.
Extending the time that residents could stay to the full 15-year life of the transitional park would help those who want to see their children complete their education in Howard schools or pay down their mortgages. "Five years is simply not going to work," Carney told the council.
Several council members seemed to agree, including Rakes, the sponsor, who said, "We do hear you," and that the council wants to go beyond five years.
Rakes said that "five years seemed reasonable," when compared to the one-year notice of closing required by state law.
Several trailer parks have closed in recent years, and another, Ev-Mar in Savage, is due to close next summer. County officials expect Aladdin Village to close within five years. Residents of mobile home parks do not own the land on which their homes sit, and when a park closes, it is difficult, if not impossible, to relocate mobile homes -- especially older ones.
About 17 residents of Ev-Mar have been battling to keep their homes, or at least get more relocation money from the heirs of the late park owners -- so far without much success. Several residents have charged park managers with deceiving them by encouraging them to move in with expensive new mobile homes, knowing of plans to close the park for land redevelopment.
Feaga took his place on the dais after he was sworn in before a crowd of about 50 family, friends and other public officials.
"It makes me feel good to see so many friends," he said. Feaga drew a laugh by telling the crowd that an acquaintance joked, "I know why he's doing it -- to do it right this time."
Feaga served three terms on the council from 1986 to 1998, when he ran for county executive.
Other legislation on last night's public hearing agenda included authorization to sell $64 million in county bonds and a measure sponsored by four council members to regulate the use of the image of the county seal.
The bills discussed last night are scheduled for a vote at the council's Dec. 6 meeting.
