Rezoning proposal concerns residents of mobile homes
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer

HOWELL - More discussion and possible action is expected at the Jan. 22 meeting of the Township Council on an ordinance that has upset the residents of a local mobile home park.

The ordinance which proposes to rezone land at West Farms and Snyder roads from Mobile Home Park and Agricultural Rural Estate to Residential Adult Community was introduced by the council on Dec. 18. A public hearing on the ordinance and a possible vote for adoption has been set for Jan. 22.

Some residents of Green Acres Manor, a mobile home community of about 112 people, came before the council on Dec. 18 to ask the members of the governing body not to adopt to new law.

Geraldine Pujat, a mobile home owner who has lived in the development since 1967, said she believes the master plan subcommittee should readdress the rezoning issue, "give it proper consideration and put it into perspective."

"These people have children in the school systems and volunteer in many capacities in many of your programs. Mobile homes, which are low-income housing, have never been put into any census and have not been properly addressed. I am a mobile home owner and I am not ashamed of that," Pujat said.

Resident David Dutton, who has lived in the mobile home park for about three years, said the issue is about economic status and class, not zoning.

"It is not right that people with the most money make it. We have no place to go. We own our own homes and pay our rent. Whoever has the most money is going to get by. That's not right," Dutton said.

The residents are concerned that if the property on which the mobile home park sits is rezoned, the owner of the mobile home park would be able to sell the land and force the mobile home owners to vacate the premises.

In comments to the council, Jennifer Beahm, the township's planner for issues of affordable housing, said, "there does not appear to be a need to make zoning changes."

"What happens to residents if an existing development in an area is being rezoned, those uses if they are no longer permitted … there could be a grandfathering provision to enable those uses conforming currently," Beahm said.

Planning Board member Russell Bohlin, who is a member of the Master Plan Subcommittee, told the council members, "I want you to take into consideration the mobile home park. You have 112 people there. If that is not affordable housing then I do not know what is. I think the ordinance you are proposing, if adopted, opens the door for the destruction of that community.

"I think the owner of that property, or a subsequent owner, would sell that property to someone who is interested in doing what the zoning (would) permit, which is to put up residential housing in the Howell community. That would force all those (current residents) to have to leave and receive no compensation for their homes that probably represent their life savings," Bohlin said.