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Seminole plans safety net for mobile home residents

A Seminole proposal would let developers build extra homes provided they go to the elderly for 10 years at a lower rent.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published September 11, 2005

SEMINOLE - For weeks, homeowners from the Harbor Lights Mobile Home Park, fearing they will lose their homes to a developer, have pleaded with council members to help them.

The city may be about to do that. A proposed ordinance would make it easier to require developers to provide some housing for the elderly, who are often displaced when developers turn mobile home parks into condominiums.

Under the draft proposal, Seminole could let a developer build more housing than is usually allowed provided the extra homes go to senior residents. The rent would have to be affordable. The agreement would last for at least 10 years; after that, the developer could do what it wanted with the housing.

"It allows the city's administration to negotiate with future developers to achieve the city's goals. Quite simply, that's what it would allow," Seminole City Manager Frank Edmunds said.

He said the proposal is a "work in progress" that could change or even be dropped before becoming the city's rule.

It is scheduled to come before the city's Development Review Board at 7 p.m. Sept. 19. The meeting is open to the public.

After that board makes its recommendation, Edmunds has the option of passing it to the council, holding it until later or dropping the whole idea.

The council would have to vote on it, however, before it went into effect.

George Kenny, one of the Harbor Lights mobile homeowners, was doubtful the proposal would solve a problem that is spreading across the county as developers target the large tracts of land covered by parks.

"In honesty, it sounds good. In reality, it won't work," Kenny said.

The housing will not take care of everyone, he said, and the question arises of what happens when the 10 years are up. If a person is 70 when the 10-year period begins, then at age 80 the person might have to find another place to live, Kenny said.

But he praised Seminole for the effort.

"I don't know if there's a real good solution to this mess, I really don't," Kenny said. "I believe Seminole is really trying to do something about this."

John Loder of Sun Vista Development Group has a $60-million contract to buy Harbor Lights and the adjacent Bay Pines Marina. Loder announced earlier this year that he plans a $300-million development with almost 400 residences, including townhomes, single-family dwellings and luxury condominiums priced from $600,000 to $1.75-million.

The Travis family, which still owns Harbor Lights, offered to allow the approximately 400 tenants who own the 313 mobile homes on the property to buy the land. When the mobile homeowners, most of whom are elderly and on fixed incomes, could not come up with the money, the Travises signed the contract with Loder.

If Loder moves forward with the development, he would be required by state law to give the residents six months to move and pay each homeowner $3,000 to help move a single-wide and $6,000 to help move a double-wide.

But if the mobile home cannot be moved for reasons that include permanent additions or poor condition, which is the case with most of the homes in Harbor Lights, the owner would receive $1,375 for a single-wide and $2,750 for a double-wide. That won't compensate some owners for the investments they have made in their homes.

With few options, the residents have appeared at recent council meetings to plead that the council turn down any request for a zoning change. Their pleas came at an opportune time.

Seminole city staff members were already working on an ordinance that would give the council more control over development. Originally, the proposal covered only such things as architectural style and landscaping, "so you don't have that ugly, big-box look," Ely said.

But with the council sympathetic to residents' plight, the housing component was added for residential developments.

The way the proposal is worded, the city can negotiate a contract with the developer to allow 33 percent more homes to be built provided they are dedicated for 10 years to elderly, fixed-income residents.

The ordinance would kick in when a developer needs a zoning change to develop or redevelop property. The idea is that a developer who needs a zoning change would be more willing to please the city in making such a contract.

Thus, if Loder were limited to 400 homes, then the city could allow him to build 532, but the extra 132 would have to go to the same type of people he displaced. The rents would have to be held low for the 10-year period as well.

The deal would be limited to 10 years because of state law.

[Last modified September 11, 2005, 01:12:29]