Mobile Home Park Closure Legislation Moves to Senate

The legislation passed by a vote of 36 to 23 on the House Floor.

Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore. ) - It was bittersweet day for supporters of the comprehensive Mobile Home Park Closure Relief Package drafted by a coalition of park tenants, landlords and others.

“After working pretty much non-stop on this park closure legislation for over two years now, it has been very frustrating and I had high hopes we could get something meaningful accomplished this session,” said State Representative Jerry Krummel during debate on House Bill 2735 Tuesday.

The legislation passed by a vote of 36 to 23 on the House Floor.

Krummel voted against HB 2735 because he vowed to support a compromise drafted by the Manufactured Housing Landlord Tenant Coalition.

Krummel pushed for a different version of the package; House Bill 2735 – the Minority Report.

That version did not pass, but did contain all the pieces agreed to by the Coalition.

The only difference between the minority report and HB 2735-B was a provision to block cities from adopting more stringent park closure laws.

The facilitator for the Coalition, John VanLandingham was disappointed the agreement reached by the group was not honored by the House, but remained optimistic.

“We had hoped for a balanced package which treated landlords and tenants fairly. Perhaps we can make some positive changes in the Oregon Senate before this Legislative Session is over.”

Rising real estate values around the state lead to a series of park closures in recent years.

During the tail end of the 2005 Legislative Session, Krummel worked with the Coalition to adopt a new law which offered a $10,000 tax credit to residents forced out of their parks.

“Dozens of people took advantage of that new law. Without it, many of them would have been forced into state subsidized nursing homes or assisted living facilities or worse; left homeless, causing a significant cost to the state and society,” explained State Representative Tom Butler (R-Ontario) who carried the Minority Report for HB 2735.

Representatives Krummel and Butler argued for the local preemption in order to avoid a patchwork of laws across the state. Krummel pointed out, “it just doesn’t make any sense to have 36 different park closure laws in 36 counties and then another 240 for each city.”

He also pointed out the four cities which currently have local ordinances, including Wilsonville, have either been challenged in the courts or face potential litigation.

The mayors from several other communities and commissioners in two counties expressed support for preemption.

The original compromise legislation included the preemption, the tax credit, a freeze on the park’s assessed property value, and a requirement for landlords to pay up to $9,000 to the mobile home owners in a park closure situation.

The freeze and preemption have now been removed from the bill.

Complicating matters the Senate Revenue Committee limited the total amount of money available for the mobile home tax credit.

A new omnibus tax credit bill, HB 3201, was amended today cutting the tax credit for mobile home owners in half, reducing it from the initial $10,000 credit to just $5,000.