Riverdale trailer park residents fear potential development plans could force them out
Jason Williams, a resident in Lesley's Mobile Home Park in Riverdale, poses for a photo Wednesday April 7, 2021. He and other tenants worry that a planned rezone of the land could result in their forced removal to make way for other development.
Jason Williams, a resident in Lesley's Mobile Home Park in Riverdale, is pictured Wednesday April 7, 2021. He and other tenants worry that a planned rezone of the land could result in their forced removal to make way for other development.
Lesley's Mobile Home Park in Riverdale is pictured Wednesday, April 7, 2021, photographed from the nearby bridge hauling Riverdale Road motorists over the Weber River. Residents worry that a planned rezone of the land could result in their forced removal to make way for other development.
Lesley's Mobile Home Park in Riverdale is seen Wednesday, April 7, 2021, photographed from the nearby bridge hauling Riverdale Road motorists over the Weber River. Residents worry that a planned rezone of the land could result in their forced removal to make way for other development.
Jason Williams, a resident in Lesley's Mobile Home Park in Riverdale, poses for a photo Wednesday April 7, 2021. He and other tenants worry that a planned rezone of the land could result in their forced removal to make way for other development.
Jason Williams, a resident in Lesley's Mobile Home Park in Riverdale, is pictured Wednesday April 7, 2021. He and other tenants worry that a planned rezone of the land could result in their forced removal to make way for other development.
RIVERDALE — With a pending request to rezone the property where Lesley’s Mobile Home Park sits, with a steep increase in rent and utilities looming, residents are uncertain of their future, fearing the worst.
“The rezone is pretty much a notice of, ‘Hey, get out,'” said Jason Williams. He’s lived in the Riverdale mobile home park, which sits in the shadow of the bridge that hauls Riverdale Road traffic over the Weber River, for 20-plus years.
That is, Williams and other residents fear the rezone of the 4.62 acres where the park sits will be a precursor to their removal to make way for apartments or some other sort of development. H&H 39th Street, the property owner, is asking that the property be rezoned to the Multiple-Family Residential classification, which would permit construction of apartments or town homes, among other things.
Reps from Walker, Steiner & Schmidt, the Holladay-based law firm that’s listed as the registered agent and manager of H&H 39th Street, home to around 50 units, didn’t immediately respond to queries seeking comment. Mike Eggett, Riverdale’s community development director, said he has no more insight into what plans may or may not be afoot. The rezone goes before the Riverdale Planning Commission for consideration next Tuesday.
But there are plenty of jittery residents, who include lower-wage workers and others who rely on fixed incomes, and Tonya Rotunda, among them, is vowing to fight. She and others don’t know where they’d go if forced out, while Williams warns that some would likely join the ranks of the homeless.
“If they’re going to take the mobile home, they’re going to have to take me with it,” said Rotunda, who relies on disability payments. “If they’re going to start tearing my mobile home down, I’m going to be chained inside mine.”
Numerous residents spoke out to city officials at a March 23 public hearing on the rezone request. “We realize you’re the city and you’re going to want something nice in there instead of our trailer park. But we are a lot of people who don’t have the ability to afford a nice place that’s going in there,” Williams, one of the speakers, said at the gathering.
Three days later, Williams said, tenants received notice that lot rent and utilities for Lesley’s Mobile Home Park residents would go from $553 to $787.50 effective June 1, a 42.4% jump. That compounded their worries. “What they’re doing is bullying us out with the rent increase,” he said.
Lesley’s Mobile Home Park sits at 671 W. 4400 South, just south of Riverside Village, a larger mobile home park that’s not part of the rezone issue. Riverdale Mayor Norm Searle said the property owner of Lesley’s has tried to improve conditions inside the park, encouraging residents to bring in new units, with little success. Thus, the owner turned to the rezone effort.
“There are a lot of trailers in there that are in pretty sad shape,” Searle said.
The mayor feels for the residents. The city has provided the mobile home park owners with a list of resources on housing and homelessness for distribution to tenants. “It’s an unfortunate situation anytime people are affected. It isn’t a good thing,” he said.
At the same time, though, H&H 39th Street, as the property owner, has rights. As long as the property owner follows proper guidelines in rezoning the land and complies with the conditions laid out in the city’s general plan, city officials have limited leeway to halt proceedings. In fact, to unduly step in, Searle warned, could invite a lawsuit against the city. “It’s all about property rights. Property owners have property rights,” Searle said.
TIM VANDENACK, Standard-Examiner
Lesley’s Mobile Home Park in Riverdale is pictured Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Residents worry that a planned rezone of the land could result in their forced removal to make way for other development.
Still, tenants of Lesley’s Mobile Home Park and their advocates say they have rights, too. The 42.4% rent and utility increase announced three days after the March 23 public hearing, in particular, riles Francisca Blanc, advocacy and outreach coordinator for the Utah Housing Coalition.
“I’m sorry, but it looks like retaliation,” she said. When a landlord boosts rent so dramatically “that’s when you can have a valid argument in front of a judge.”
Likewise, Williams worries that by boosting rent, potentially beyond the means of some residents, H&H 39th Street is trying to force them out without giving the nine months’ notice that is required in Utah law when vacating a mobile home park.
Either way, having to leave creates hardships of its own. Most of the units in the park are so old that federal law prohibits moving them, thus many tenants would lose their homes. Williams knows of only three that could be legally removed. One of his neighbors, Williams added, made thousands of dollars worth of improvements to his trailer, which may be for naught if forced to leave.
“There are all these people struggling already and we have nowhere to go,” he said.