Manufactured home park protections sought

For thousands of Clark County residents, manufactured home parks represent one of the last pathways to affordable housing in the region. Now, the Clark County Council is trying to figure out how to keep the communities from vanishing.

During a Wednesday county council workshop, councilors mulled over potential new zoning policies to preserve the county's 34 manufactured home parks and reduce displacement for the more than 2,000 residents living in them. At these parks, owners of mobile homes rent the land on which their homes sit.

Elizabeth Decker, land use planning consultant with Jet Planning, presented a proposal to create an overlay zone that would protect existing parks located within the county's urban growth areas. An overlay zone adds extra rules without changing a property's underlying zone.

About 74 percent of the county's parks are within the growth area, Decker said.

"The problem that we are trying to solve here is to reduce the pressure for redevelopment," Councilor Glen Yung said. "The redevelopment of these places will significantly harm the individuals that currently live there in many, many ways."

Proposed changes

Decker said the parks provide not only affordable options for people but also accessible one-story units for aging residents and a sense of community.

Many residents in these parks are older adults or low-income and younger families living on fixed incomes.

"Manufactured home parks are a very specific, targeted type of housing that meets an important niche that is not really met any other way," Decker said.

But the land on which many manufactured home parks sit is often valuable for redevelopment, according to Wednesday's presentation, making them targets for large corporations.

For more than a year, manufactured home park residents have pleaded with county councilors to provide protection from large companies purchasing their parks. Residents told councilors that the corporations - often from out of state - are threatening because they either raise rents or plan to redevelop the parks.

"They're difficult to move, and there are very few available sites that are willing to accept a transferred manufactured home," Decker said.

Decker said one issue the county is running into is inconsistent zoning for these parks.

The county council has extended a helping hand in response to residents' concerns.

In August, the Clark County Council approved a six-month emergency ordinance to pause all redevelopment applications for mobile and manufactured home parks. Applications submitted will now be rejected and returned to the applicant.

In October, the council approved its first extension of the ordinance. In February, the county extended it again, this time for a year.

State-level changes have also sought to help these residents. In 2023, legislators passed a law aimed at giving manufactured home park residents a fair chance to purchase their parks. Park owners hoping to sell must give residents a heads-up and an opportunity to mobilize if they'd like to place a bid.

But despite several fruitful attempts locally over the past three years, Clark County residents told The Columbian that the system still doesn't work in their favor.

Now, the council is returning to the table to consider how to provide permanent help to park residents. The proposed zoning plan would apply only to existing parks within the urban growth area and would state that the land is intended to remain a manufactured home park.

"What it does is take away that threat of redevelopment, so that there is one less wolf lurking in the background that could lead to displacement," Decker said.

Under the proposed overlay, park owners would be allowed to redevelop a park only if they demonstrate that continuing to operate it as a park is no longer economically viable.

Decker recommended this over changing the base zone - a property's main zoning that determines what development is allowed - because the parks are already located in a variety of zones.

"We want there to be enough flexibility," Decker said.

Preserving the pathway

Decker also asked councilors for feedback on whether the proposed overlay should allow only manufactured home parks or also include other forms of affordable housing, such as cottage clusters and multifamily housing.

The discussion was prompted by Evergreen Habitat for Humanity's recent purchase of Hidden Village mobile home park, where it plans to preserve some existing manufactured homes while potentially developing portions of the site that are currently undeveloped.

Some councilors had concerns about the potential overlay. Councilor Matt Little wondered whether the overlay could discourage developers from building new manufactured home parks in the county, thereby limiting options for the affordable homeownership pathway. Decker said there isn't much interest among developers in building new manufactured home parks in Southwest Washington because the "economics do not add up."

Little said he was worried the overlay would create even more disincentives.

"We're trying to lock in the 2,000 homes that are affordable now, but we may be adding another layer that prevents future ones," Little said. "I'm wondering if there's a way to do this in a way that we're also creating an incentive for a new landowner ... for something to pencil out for them as well."

Oliver Orjiako, the county's planning director, said the overlay would not automatically apply to new parks and that nothing in the proposal would prohibit construction of a new park.

Council Chair Sue Marshall said she supported the proposal but had concerns about parks outside the urban growth area. She wanted additional protections for those residents.

"The overriding concern for me is protection of existing affordable housing, and that a lot of these folks will just simply be displaced," Marshall said. "I would not want to contribute to an increasing homeless population."

Yung said the objective of any proposed overlay is to reduce redevelopment pressure. He said the recent state rent cap may have unintentionally increased incentives for park owners to redevelop.

Yung supported allowing the overlay to include additional affordable housing options but also had concerns about whether it would create another incentive to push current residents out.

"We need to be very careful that again we're not increasing pressure," Yung said. "We have responsible park owners, and we have irresponsible park owners."

The county will revisit the proposal at a later date.

This story was made possible by Community Funded Journalism, a project from The Columbian and the Local Media Foundation. Top donors include the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Patricia, David and Jacob Nierenberg, Connie and Lee Kearney, Steve and Jan Oliva, The Cowlitz Tribal Foundation and the Mason E. Nolan Charitable Fund. The Columbian controls all content. For more information, visit columbian.com/cfj.

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