Boot May Be Near For Lot-Leasing Homeowners As Mobile Home Park Landlord Unloads Premises To Private Developer With Plans For 235-Unit Apartment Complex; Low Area Vacancy Rate May Make Relocating Trailers Tough For Residents

In Port Moody, British Columbia, the Tri-City News reports:

• Residents of a Port Moody mobile home park face an uncertain future after it was sold to a developer.
  
  PC Urban said it intends to build a 235-unit rental apartment complex on the 1.7-acre site on Dewdney Trunk Road not far from the Inlet Centre SkyTrain station.
  
  PC Urban principal Brent Sawchyn said the company has been in contact with the seven tenants who still live in the park to advise them of its intentions for the site, but it has not been able to provide a timeline.
  
  “It’s still early days for the development of our future plans,” Sawchyn said in a statement. “In the meantime, we continue to operate the site as a mobile home park with the few remaining tenants in place.”
  
  The provincial Residential Tenancy Act mandates owners of mobile home parks provide a year’s notice to tenants if the park is to be redeveloped, along with financial compensation equivalent to 12 months rent after redevelopment is approved by a city.
  
  When it does come time for those tenants to vacate the property, they may have a hard time finding a new location for their mobile homes, said Al Kemp, the executive director of the Manufactured Home Park Owners Alliance of B.C. that represents about 375 of the 1000 mobile home parks in the province. He said the average vacancy rate in the province’s mobile home parks is about half a site.
  
  Port Moody mayor Mike Clay said there’s little the city can do for the park’s residents at this point.
  
  “It’s a private land deal,” Clay said. “What happens between them is really not much of the city’s business.”
  
  But as the project moves forward, the city may be able to leverage accommodation for those tenants as part of the site’s rezoning process.
  
  “That’s where we have an opportunity to negotiate and flex what power we have,” Clay said.

Source: Uncertain future for residents of PoMo mobile home park.