In an effort to preserve an affordable housing resource, the Denver City Council is considering imposing a moratorium on mobile home redevelopment. The Land Use, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee heard the proposed bill for the first time last week.
City leaders say it is modeled after Aurora’s 10 month moratorium put in to place in 2018. The goal is to preserve what council president Jamie Torres and members of council staff see as an affordable housing resource that is at risk.
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“We’re bringing forward the first bill that approaches restrictions on redevelopment in the five mobile home park effect Denver currently has,” Torres said in the Nov. 1 committee meeting. “Mobile home park preservation is affordable housing preservation.”
Generally speaking, mobile home residents own their units but not the land they rest on. Because of this, they are at risk of having to move should a developer purchase the land and raise rent or repurpose its use. Mobile home owners are more likely to lose their homes to redevelopment because of relocation costs, age and high housing costs in Denver.
Two of the parks were put up for sale in 2021 and 2022.
Denver has roughly 300 families living in five mobile home parks right now, according to Torres. They are located in Districts 3, 7 and 9. However, due to redistricting, a park located at 2825 W. Evans Ave. will be located in District 2.
The moratorium, set to last 18 months and expire in April of 2024, will give the city time devise a plan to regulate these parks keeping mobile homes in Denver.
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District 6 Councilman Paul Kashmann posed that Denver should own the mobile home parks outright.
“Let’s buy those properties so we can control what gets built on them,” he said. “We might be able to do better for the people living there now in the future.”
The committee unanimously approved the moratorium, though it still has to be seen before council.
During tonight’s meeting, the council will decide whether or not the city needs to rescind $12 million from the contingency fund. If approved, the money will be appropriated to the general fund, special revenue funds, capital funds, and agency enterprise funds to address year-end 2022 needs.
The council will also hold a public hearing concerning the naming of a pocket park in the Valverde neighborhood. The park, located at 25 S. Bryant St., will be named Ulibarri Park in honor of Elaine and Fred Ulibarri.
The Ulibarri’s community, civil rights and cultural activism, particularly as a part of the Chicano movement in Denver warranted the naming according to the filed bill.
The city council session can be streamed online through Denver’s municipal television station, Channel 8. It can also be joined through Zoom via this link.
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