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Builder resubmits plan for mobile home park

A developer again asks to rezone the park, this time to replace the 178 mobile homes with 162 townhomes.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published August 3, 2005

PINELLAS PARK - To the dismay of mobile home owners, a developer has resubmitted a plan to raze the Golden Lantern Mobile Home Park and make way for slightly fewer townhomes than the original blueprint.

The action comes as no surprise, but a blow nonetheless, to Golden Lantern residents, who claimed victory last month when the county rejected Robert Keathley's request for a zoning change that would have allowed the development.

But Keathley and three other park owners were allowed to resubmit their plans, which they did July 15.

The latest proposal is to build a small commercial development and 162 townhomes - 18 fewer than the original plan - on about 20 acres. The park currently contains about 178 mobile homes, according to documents filed with Pinellas County.

Charles Plancon, head of the Golden Lantern Homeowners Association, was dismayed. He referred to the plan last week in a speech before the Seminole City Council as "nefarious."

Before denying the original zoning change, county commissioners said they wanted staff members to draft guidelines for determining whether the park residents would have "suitable and adequate" housing should the park close. State law requires that mobile home dwellers have a "suitable and adequate" place to go before a park can be destroyed.

The commissioners rejected the application "without prejudice." That meant Keathley could immediately renew his request for rezoning.

The latest application comes with a relocation plan that lists 17 other mobile home parks within a 6-mile radius with lot rents ranging from $206 to $446 a month. It also reports that there are 21,241 mobile homes and, of those, 1,057 were unoccupied. The average rental was $369 a month. Lot rents at Golden Lantern, according to the plan, are $350 a month.

Situations similar to what is happening at Golden Lantern are becoming commonplace across Pinellas County as developers eye the acreage on which the parks sit. The Golden Lantern has become somewhat of a test case for county commissioners trying to decide their role in looking out for residents while weighing private business interests.

The mobile home park, in the unincorporated county near the Pinellas Park border, has both mobile home renters and owners.

The renters have few, if any, rights when a mobile home park is slated to be destroyed. Owners of trailers that are affixed to the ground have the right to be reimbursed for their loss. Those whose mobile homes can be moved receive $3,000 for a single-wide and $6,000 for a double-wide to help with the move. Those whose homes can't be moved receive $1,375 for a single-wide and $2,750 for a double-wide.

The problem is that many of the mobile homes at Golden Lantern cannot be moved and, even if they could, other parks would likely not accept them because they are old and would fail to meet code.

That leaves many of the homeowners facing financial ruin and unable to recoup the money they paid to buy and renovate their homes.

County staffers are now reviewing the proposal.

[Last modified August 3, 2005, 00:36:17]