San Juan, Green Acres, & Cottonwood Mobile Home Parks

The City of Montrose’s involvement in mobile home park preservation is unusual in that it doesn’t involve the purchase of parks, but instead, negotiating with a mobile home park buyer to make improvements before being issued an operating permits.

Deputy City Manager Ann Morgenthaler explained that a development team came into Montrose and
bought three dilapidated mobile home parks in which water quality was bad, sewer was inadequate, there were no fire hydrants, etc. The parks were so old they pre-dated permitting. Essentially the owner was told that if he made certain improvements, he would be eligible for operating permits and could move in additional units, which would increase his revenue. Without those permits, he couldn’t move in new units.

With the goal of preserving affordable housing, the city contributed a total of $500,000 for asbestos remediation associated with removal of uninhabitable homes and helped pay for new water and sewer lines. The city used American Rescue Plan and general fund monies for this partnership.

Now the mobile home parks have clean water, new sewer and gas lines, paved roads, and a new green space at each of the three sites.

“Terrible motel-like rooms” on the properties were also removed. The owner was required to keep rents the same until the improvements had been completed, on about a two-year timeline. The city paid a contractor directly for the work the city funded. This process was comparable to what the city does for businesses, Morgenthaler said; for example, the city will help fund things like asbestos removal from downtown buildings to foster redevelopment.

“It happened, when we spoke to the right developer, that he would commit to making improvements if he could in turn bring in new units,” Morgenthaler said. “We’re working now on how to use that hook (or other hooks) on parks that are not in the conditions we would like them to be. How can we issue a permit conditioned on the developer doing improvements and maintaining the parks?”

Morgenthaler took her ideas to the city planning commission, then to city council for approval, and
drafted a written agreement spelling out what the developer had to do in order to get approval to add a certain number of units. For its part, the city would contribute financially to the improvements.

The developer has since moved to a rent-only model and is not accepting new resident-owned
mobile homes in any of the three parks.