According to 2000 Census data, 84,000 Utahns live in mobile homes; 17,000 are in the Salt Lake Valley. With rising land values, several mobile-home parks have been sold for redevelopment.
When a park sells, residents get evicted en masse, said Rep. Phil Riesen, a Democrat from Holladay. He proposed legislation Wednesday to members of the Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Interim Committee, which voted to consider the measure during the 2008 Legislature.
State law now assures this population segment - many are elderly or disabled - no more than 90 days' notice to get out.
Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall, a registered Republican, likes Riesen's bill.
"Mobile-home communities are unique in that there are two property owners involved," Wall said. "I'm a personal property-rights advocate, but this is an issue where there are two interests we have to balance."
Wall's western Salt Lake Valley city has three such parks, home to 900 to 1,200 residents. Some 80 percent are senior citizens on fixed incomes.
"Ninety days is not enough to mobilize resources," Wall said.
He told the committee that these kinds of protections have been before the Legislature before, with no subsequent action. So the Taylorsville City Council directed city staff to draft an ordinance that would change the zoning of its three manufactured-home com- munities.
While the city ordinance would not block a developer from transforming a mobile-home park into high-end condos, it would require the landowner to give tenants a year's eviction notice.
Taylorsville's council is expected to consider the new ordinance next month.
Although Taylorsville is ready to beef up protection for mobile-home park residents, Wall was at the Capitol on Wednesday to push for statewide reform.
In a telephone interview earlier in the day, he said: "It would be in the best interest of everybody if there was a global fix to this, so individual cities don't have to make up their own rules. We're moving forward with it because we're sitting on a ticking time bomb, and we don't want to have a catastrophe happen."
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* WHAT HAPPENED:
A bill by Rep. Phil Riesen, D-Holladay - it is designed to lessen the impact on mobile-home-park residents forced to move when the park is developed for housing - advanced out of committee Wednesday. Two Utah County Republican lawmakers - Sen. Mark Madsen and Rep. Christopher Herrod - voted against it.
* THE PROPOSAL:
Would enact three protections: 1. 365 days' notice if a change in land use occurs; 2. 180 days' notice for lease termination; and 3. limiting any rent increase during that time to no more than twice the consumer-price index.
