Mobile home park bill killed — again

Housing • All Republican oppose, all Dems in favor.

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Maybe manufactured-housing owners should have not charged at a Capitol rally that Republicans do not listen to them but only listen to the lobbyists for mobile home parks that they say mistreat them.

Not long after that on Wednesday, the House Business and Labor Committee voted to hold, or kill, HB63 on a 9-3 vote — with all Republicans opposing it and all Democrats favoring it.

Owners of manufactured homes sought that bill by Rep. Janice Fisher, D-West Valley City, to outline how they can force meetings with mobile home-park owners to address concerns. They have sought variations of it for the past several years.

Homeowners testified that park owners threaten with eviction anyone who goes door to door seeking to organize homeowners associations, saying it violates rules banning soliciting. They also say park owners threaten anyone making waves with eviction for such things as eating or drinking outside, parking on streets or walking on streets after 9 p.m.

"When you move into a manufactured-housing community, you have just stepped into the threshold of a dictatorial country," said Ken Parker, president of the Utah Manufactured Homeowners Action Group, at a rally before the hearing. He complained there that most Republicans would not listen to them but would meet with lobbyists for park owners.

Fisher said the bill is needed because "the rights of Utahns who live in mobile home parks are being trampled," and said, "It is a communications bill."

Park owners opposed it. Rick Bills, part-owner of the American Heritage Retirement Community, said it infringes on the rights of property owners to run their parks as they wish and is seen as a step toward imposing rent control — which he said early versions of the bill contained.

Rep. Sue Duckworth, D-Magna, said lawmakers are "tired of this bill," seeing versions of it every year. She told park and homeowners, "You get together and fix this problem."