Tenants of one of southern Maine’s most affordable mobile home parks are up in arms over the possibility of future rent increases under new ownership, and have successfully petitioned the Old Orchard Beach City Council to pass a rent control ordinance add to the ballots for the November 5 elections. .
Voters in Old Orchard Beach will be asked: “Will the ordinance entitled ‘Citizens Initiative Petition, Amendments to the Town of Old Orchard Beach Code of Ordinances, Chapter 34, Housing, adding Article IV, Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Ordinance’ be passed?”
The sale of the Old Orchard Village mobile home park and Atlantic Village (one park with 371 spaces. Atlantic Village consists of double-wide units on concrete foundations, while Old Orchard Village consists mainly of single-wide mobile homes without foundations) in August. According to a tenant of the park, 2024 ends the decades-long ownership of the Paus family, dating back to 1937.
Previously, while it was still owned by Pope and doing business as Seagate Limited Partnership, the park’s tenants were notified in April of a 14.5% rent increase, which took effect June 1.
The property was appraised by the city at $10.5 million and changed hands for $41 million, said Eric Rollaine, president of Follett USA, the mobile home park’s new owner.
Concerned that the increase was a precursor to the business that would fall under the new ownership, tenants of the park started a petition to create a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks. Tenants discovered that such an ordinance was in use in a California city and revised it to be PIE-specific.
The petition was filed with the city in August and went to a public hearing before the City Council on September 3. The ordinance was reviewed by the city’s attorney and found acceptable. The council had two choices at its September meeting: approve it that evening, or give voters the opportunity to decide the issue in the form of a referendum. The latter was approved by a 4-0 vote.
More recently, a standing-room-only meeting hosted by Follett USA took place on October 15 at a local restaurant. Rollaine presented a plan for leases that would allow tenants to hold a certain monthly rent for a certain period of time, and expressed concerns about the effectiveness of a rent control ordinance.
“You have a month-to-month situation right now, I don’t blame you for being nervous,” he told the crowd. “We want to propose a different solution, long-term rental. We can create a win-win situation, that is the goal.”
Rollaine told his audience that Follett USA owns seventeen other mobile home parks across the country. In an email exchange after the meeting, he confirmed that five of these parks are subject to rent control ordinances.
A second meeting was scheduled for Oct. 24 via Zoom, where Rollaine would present details of the proposed long-term rental program, which the company is proposing as an alternative for residents who approve a citywide rent control ordinance for mobile homes.
One concern of city officials is the cost of administering the proposed ordinance. The proposed ordinance calls for an “administrator,” ostensibly a city employee who would be appointed by the city manager. It also specifies the appointment of an “arbitrator”, a person who would be appointed by the administrator.
In an Oct. 9 letter to residents of Old Orchard Village and Atlantic Village, Rollaine suggested that the ordinance, as drafted, “…did not take into account unexpected costs that the municipality will have to bear to implement such a complex ordinance .”
He went on to say that the annual cost of office space, salary, consulting and legal fees and arbitration could exceed $100,000, according to an estimate by City Manager Diana Asanza. As drafted, these costs are “… specified as being borne by the persons covered by the regulation. That means you…’ the letter said.
Val Philbrick is one of many mobile home park residents who support the proposed rent control ordinance. She was not present at the Oct. 15 meeting hosted by Follett USA, but remains unconvinced that the new owners can be trusted to maintain the historic pattern of rent increases, which, she said, “…never were more than five percent; it was 2-3% per year, some years nothing at all.”
“They are committed to putting these leases in place,” Philbrick said. “I’m 69 years old – am I going to sign a ten-year lease?”
Another mobile home park, Pine Grove Village, also operates in Old Orchard Beach under different ownership. It has twenty-two rooms and accommodates mainly seniors.
Bob Hamblen can be reached at rhh0918@gmail.com.
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