Windsor backs mobile park sale

<p>The Windsor Town Council has lent its unanimous support to the proposed sale of the city's largest mobile home park in a move that puts the nonprofit buyer one step closer to sealing the deal.</p><p>Town officials call the proposed sale a "win-win" for the current owner and Windsor Mobile Country Club residents -- all 55 or older and most on fixed incomes -- despite initial rent hikes that some fear may force them out.</p><p>The proposal by Sacramento-based Resident Owned Parks Inc. includes rental assistance for an estimated 200 low-income residents and a 3 percent cap on subsequent rent increases, an amount below what would be allowed under the town's rent-control ordinance in most years.</p><p>At a time when other mobile home parks are being converted to condominiums or, as in the case with Windsorland Mobile Home and RV Park, simply being shut down, the proposal also provides long-term stability to Country Club residents, who, after 30 years, would own the park through their homeowners association, officials said.</p><p>"What this sale does is it gives certainty to the residents of the mobile home park for 30 years that no one else will purchase that mobile home park and either try to condo-ize it or sell it off for the land," Councilwoman Debora Fudge said.</p><p>"There are so many negative alternatives that could be happening at Windsor Country Club and are not happening because of the owner's willingness to sell to nonprofit ROP, to protect park residents," said Resident Owned Parks president Maurice Priest, a lobbyist and advocate for mobile home residents for the past 30 years.</p><p>With 336 spaces, Windsor Mobile Country Club is the town's largest and has been owned for more than 30 years by Ron Woll-mer, a landlord adored by his tenants, most or all of whom pay rents well below market rates.</p><p>The proposal calls for Wollmer to finance the $24 million deal through tax-exempt bonds at a fixed rate of 5¾ percent, Priest and officials said.</p><p>Between $3 million and $6 million in loan proceeds also will be put aside to provide interest income to fund rent subsidies.</p><p>Rents for those currently paying $301 a month would rise to $518 -- an increase of more than 70 percent. Those paying $409 a month now would pay $595, according to Priest.</p><p>"I know people in the park who are not going to be able to make it even with assistance," said Donna Helwig, who opposes the sale to ROP and is part of a committee investigating alternatives.</p><p>Helwig said dissension, where it exists, is driven in part by the short notice given residents and distrust of Priest's motives and promises.</p><p>But she also acknowledged that Wollmer's availability, responsiveness and generous rent breaks engendered complacency among the park's residents that left them in shock when the proposed sale was announced.</p><p>Fudge and others said 85 percents to 90 percent of the more than 100 people who attended a packed hearing of the town council on Wednesday night indicated support for ROP's purchase of the park, however.</p><p>"Out of all the scenarios, this really is the best," said Rita Schroeder, resident and retired real estate agent.</p><p>The owner of Windsorland Mobile Home and RV Park intends to redevelop the property with condominiums, apartments and retail space. Elsewhere around Sonoma County and the rest of California, the pending conversion of mobile home parks to condominium-style ownership is threatening the availability of low-cost housing.</p><p>Schroeder, who knocked on doors at two ROP-acquired mobile home parks in Arcata, reported a rough initial transition, but said "no one got left without a house."</p><p>Senior Town Planner Kevin Thompson said he heard the same thing. "Just the fact that he (Priest) is setting up this assistance fund. Tell me a for-profit landowner who's going to do that. They're not going to do that," he said.</p><p>"My conclusion is this is probably the best thing that could happen for them."</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.</p>