Sun-Sentinel 06/25/2006Margate townhouse proposal advances We'd like to thank John Labriola for continuing to report
on the mass eviction of Rancho Margate residents including
retired Margate city employees.
-------------------- Mobile home tenants disapprove By John Labriola Special Correspondent June 25, 2006 Margate * Facing a Sept. 30 eviction deadline, most residents of the Rancho Margate mobile home park have packed their bags and moved on. But a City Commission vote this month advancing developers' plans to convert the 55-and-older community into townhouses drew protests from a group of park holdouts. By a 5-0 vote, commissioners gave preliminary approval June 7 to amending the city's master plan to increase the permitted density of the 29.5-acre property by 113 units. The amendment now must go through a months-long approval process by Broward County and the state's Department of Community Affairs before it can return to commissioners for a final vote. United Homes International asked for the higher density limit so it can build 412 townhouses just south of Sample Road at 2900 N. State Road 7 to replace the mobile home park, which sustained extensive damage from Hurricane Wilma last year. Company representatives said Celebration Pointe, with units expected to sell for $250,000 to $275,000, will raise surrounding property values and generate $250,000 more a year in tax revenues for the city. The company paid $15 million for the property last year and hired a group to help residents find housing, offering compensation packages between $1,375 and $10,000 per home depending on the size of the home and how early they left. So far, all but 47 of the park's 216 homes have been vacated. But remaining residents complained that Broward County's increasingly tight real estate market, which has seen several mobile home communities sold to developers in recent years, leaves them nowhere to turn. "When they were talking about relocating us, they couldn't find me a place," Myrna Gallo told commissioners. "The closest thing is $90 more a month." Gallo, who suffers from a bad back and other health problems, also dreads the thought of having to move her belongings, for which the developer is offering no help. "I'm not supposed to be bending or stooping," she said. The compensation packages United Homes is offering don't reflect today's prices for mobile homes, she added. "Mobile homes are now selling for $100,000," she said. Patricia Kelly, who has cancer and can't work to supplement her monthly $443 Social Security check, also fears for her future. "I don't know where I'm going to live come September," she said, crying as she spoke. "What do I do?" Janet Riley, a Broward County Legal Aid Service attorney representing Gallo, argued the commission's action violates Chapter 723 of Florida statutes, which requires municipalities to ensure that adequate housing exists before rezoning mobile home residents out of their homes. She called a developer-commissioned housing study flawed because it overstated the number of mobile homes available. But City Attorney Gene Steinfeld said the master plan vote was only preliminary, and commissioners still have to vote to change the property's zoning before any townhouses can be built. He added that recent court rulings have determined the state law's adequate housing requirement doesn't apply if mobile home owners receive at least six months' notice of eviction, as Rancho Margate residents did. City Commissioner Pam Donovan said she sympathized with the residents but felt bound by state law and the developer's property rights. "We followed all the laws, but to penalize the property owners because of state laws is not for us to get in the middle of," she said, adding that the state needs to do more to address affordable housing. Jean Almeida, 71, a seven-year Rancho Margate resident, thinks it's time for local officials to step in. "Big business is in business to make money, but why doesn't the county come up with something affordable in the same price range?" she said. "I have two bedrooms, two baths, a deck and a Florida room and I pay under $500 a month [for the lot], and there's no way I can find something that's going to be equivalent." Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Visit Sun-Sentinel.com
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