The Forum 10/04/2007

We would like to thank Michael Schmieman for this in depth story regarding the closing of the Hillsboro Pines Mobile Home Park.

There is plenty of affordable housing in Coconut Creek. So says a report prepared for the owner of Hillsboro Palms Mobile Home Park in Coconut Creek.

Florida statutes require a determination regarding the relocation of mobile home owners prior to any formal action taken by the city commission.

The report cleared the way for the commission to rezone the park, which is on the north side of Hillsboro Boulevard and east of State Road 7, and paves the way for the construction of a 248,00 square foot mixed use shopping center. This would be the second mobile home park to close in Coconut Creek in the past two years. Two others in Margate (Rancho Margate and Aztec) have closed in about the same time.

No everybody agreed with the report's findings.

It's a terrible thing. "The city entertains a polite fiction that the mobile home owners will be able to find another place to live." said Robert Perkis, who lives in another mobile home park and maintains a Web site that monitors local mobile home park closings and the relocation of displaced mobile home park residents.

"But the truth is that many of those people don't have the means or the energy to move to a new location." Perkis said.

Perkis contended that the mobile home residents "are being held hostage" by the agreement that must sign to receive relocation money from the owner.

Hillsboro Associates, the company that owns the property has agreed to pay relocating owners $5,000 in addition to the money they receive from the state, which is $6,000 for a double-wide and $3,000 for a single-wide toward moving the mobile home to another park or $2,750 to abandon a double-wide and $1,375 to abandon a single-wide. In return for the money, residents had to sign an agreement that they would not complain about the move to the city commission.

Perkis also had problems with the scope of the report, which was prepared by The Urban Group, a consulting firm that specializes in conducting such surveys for cities and government agencies. The report covered available housing within a 124-mile stretch from the Miami-Dade/Monroe County line to the Palm Beach/Martin County line.

Perkis (and the Florida Attorney General Jim Smith in an opinion to Mr. Van B. Cook County Attorney for Pinellas County on January 3, 1986) said Florida statutes limit the search for relocation housing to the Coconut Creek city limits. (The boundaries of their authority.) Assistant City Attorney Nancy Cousins said the state limits such a study of available housing to a 50-mile radius of the mobile home park. (This opinion of Cousins is inferred from the state $3,000/$6,000 payment to hauling companies toward the cost of moving mobile homes up to 50-miles when a park is closing and contradicts the Florida Attorney General. Nowhere else in Florida Statute 723 is 50-miles mentioned.)

"I'm going to go with our city attorney's ruling on this," Mayor Lou Sarbone said. (Unfortunately no agency of government protects the rights of mobile home owners, they must sue or be ignored.)

Howard Steinholz, president of The Urban Group, said any study of affordability must take into account more then the rent people pay. The monthly charge to rent a lot within the park is about $500.

"There are assessments and electric bills and so forth," he said. "The actual amount people pay to live there is closer to $1,000 a month. There are plenty of alternative locations for that amount. (The total amount paid to the mobile home park owner for the lot, water, sewer, trash, fire rescue, passed along property taxes, lawn service is roughly $600 to $650. not $1,000. Only the cost of carrying a mortgage on a new mobile home can boost the total cost to $1,000 a month. The cost of living must/may include phone, cable, insurance, electric, etc. but these are not included in the lot rent nor are they included in a typical $999 to $1,200 apartment.)

The commission accepted the report and approved the first reading of the motion to rezone the property in question unanimously. (4/0 Commissioner Dearing was unable to attend.) The commission will vote on the second and final reading of the rezoning motion at its next meeting Oct. 11. (This was a reporting error. This vote was on a land plan change amendment which requires a single vote the actual rezoning vote will take place after the county and the Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee approves the land use change amendment.)

Dennis Mele former Coconut Creek city manager and spokesperson for the mobile home park owner said the park will be closed by the end of 2008, regardless of how the commission votes. (This is a trick. The only reason a mobile home park is allowed to close is for a legally zoned change of use. If you can't get your rezoning because city residents will lose their homes, force the home owners out illegally as was done in Rancho Margate and Aztec and then apply for a rezoning because the land is no longer being used as a mobile home park.) End.