Less than three weeks after voting down an extension of Lewiston’s moratorium on mobile home park lot rent increases, the City Council will return to City Hall Tuesday night for a special meeting devoted exclusively to reconsidering the controversial rent freeze.
The special meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Lewiston City Hall, where councilors will hold a public hearing and could give both first and final passage to a proposed 179-day extension of the moratorium.
If approved, the extension would take effect Sept. 29, one day after the existing moratorium expires, and continue the prohibition on mobile home park lot rent increases for nearly another six months.
The decision to bring the issue back before councilors is notable because the council rejected a six-month extension earlier this month by a 5-2 vote after a lengthy debate over affordability, private property rights and the financial pressures facing mobile home park owners.
Tuesday’s special meeting now gives the council another opportunity to reverse course before the existing freeze expires Sept. 28.
According to the city’s agenda packet, the Lewiston Housing Committee is requesting an additional 179 days because its proposed permanent lot rent stabilization ordinance is not yet ready for adoption.
“The Housing Committee has been working to prepare a draft ordinance to regulate mobile home lot rent increases and has requested additional time to complete their work,” the city’s agenda states.
The council will be asked to first approve the extension by roll-call vote, waive a council rule that would ordinarily require another reading, and then immediately take a final roll-call vote on the ordinance.
Six-Month Freeze Began in Spring
Lewiston’s fight over mobile home lot rents began earlier this year amid concerns from residents who said rapidly increasing rents were threatening one of the city’s remaining sources of affordable housing.
The City Council gave initial approval to the moratorium in February after 13 residents spoke in support of the proposal. Many of those residents lived in mobile home parks and raised concerns about large rent increases and park ownership by companies with little connection to the community.
The measure passed its first reading 6-1, with Councilor Martel opposed.
Councilors gave the ordinance final approval March 3. The moratorium took effect April 3 and freezes rent increases for 180 days, through Sept. 28.
Under the ordinance, mobile home park owners and managers cannot impose or implement an increase in lot rent while the moratorium remains in effect.
The restriction applies not simply to basic lot rent but also to mandatory fixed charges and fees, including certain road maintenance, connection or recreation fees. Utilities, telephone and broadband expenses are excluded.
Lewiston officials argued when adopting the moratorium that mobile homeowners occupy an unusual position in the housing market: residents may own their homes but not the land beneath them.
Moving a manufactured home can be prohibitively expensive or, in some cases, practically impossible. City officials argued that dynamic leaves homeowners with far less bargaining power when a park owner raises the rent on the underlying lot.
Lewiston has seven mobile home parks, which the city has described as an important source of housing for residents at or below median income levels.
City Working Toward Permanent Rent Controls
The temporary freeze was never intended to be the city’s final policy.
Instead, councilors directed the Housing Committee to spend the moratorium period studying the issue and developing a permanent lot rent stabilization ordinance.
Over the past six months, the committee has surveyed residents and park owners, received public testimony and held a community forum attended by more than 80 people.
The emerging proposal attempts to create a formula governing how much rents could increase based on factors including local market rents, affordability, inflation and comparable mobile home park fees.
According to a memorandum included with Tuesday’s agenda, the Housing Committee says its goal is to protect homeowners from excessive increases while still allowing park owners to maintain their properties, operate profitable businesses and receive a reasonable return on their investments.
But municipal attorneys have concluded that more work is necessary before the ordinance is ready.
Legal counsel identified issues involving the wording of the ordinance, enforcement procedures, appeals or reviews and the overall legal defensibility of the proposal.
The city estimates another 40 to 50 billable hours of legal review will be required.
That work was not included in the existing budgets of the city’s Code Enforcement, Planning or Economic and Community Development departments, meaning councilors will also eventually have to determine how to pay for the additional legal work.
Despite requesting nearly another six months of protection, the Housing Committee says it expects a completed ordinance could be ready for a public hearing within approximately two to three months.
Council Already Said No Once
That request produced a sharp debate earlier this month.
Councilors who opposed extending the freeze did not necessarily oppose the Housing Committee’s work. Instead, several argued that preventing park owners from raising rents for another six months would unfairly restrict private businesses already coping with rising insurance, taxes, maintenance, labor and utility expenses.
Councilor Chittim said the city had already prevented park owners from increasing their income for six months.
Councilor Longchamps warned continued restrictions could discourage future investment in mobile home parks or even encourage owners to redevelop their properties for other purposes.
Councilor Martel similarly argued that mobile home parks are among Lewiston’s most naturally affordable forms of housing and warned that excessive regulation could ultimately reduce rather than protect the city’s affordable housing stock.
Park owners also testified about the financial consequences of the moratorium.
John Gordon, co-owner of Sunset Gardens Mobile Home Park, told councilors that his park charges approximately $384 per month while expenses continue to rise.
His business partner, Chris Saroy, said uncertainty surrounding Lewiston’s proposed rent regulation had contributed to the collapse of a planned sale of two parks and that a later offer came in roughly 26 percent lower.
Residents, meanwhile, argued they need protection until the city completes its permanent ordinance.
John Deary, a Fox Run Mobile Home Park resident, urged councilors during the earlier meeting not to allow the moratorium to lapse before they have an opportunity to vote on permanent protections.
State Law Would Remain if Moratorium Expires
The expiration of Lewiston’s moratorium would not mean mobile home park owners could increase rents without restriction.
Maine law already requires mobile home park owners to provide at least 90 days’ written notice of increases and disclose information including the amount of the proposed increase and comparable local rents.
Residents may request mediation when proposed increases exceed thresholds established under state law, and rent increases are generally limited to once within a 12-month period. Tenants also retain the ability to challenge allegedly excessive increases in District Court.
That distinction has become central to the local debate.
Supporters of a Lewiston ordinance argue statewide protections do not go far enough to shield homeowners, particularly senior citizens and people living on fixed incomes, from sudden increases on land beneath homes they may be unable to relocate.
Opponents argue state law already provides meaningful protections and that Lewiston risks creating an additional layer of local government regulation that could discourage investment in affordable housing.
A Second Vote — Just Weeks Later
Tuesday’s meeting therefore amounts to considerably more than a routine extension.
Councilors are being asked to revisit a policy they rejected by a substantial margin only weeks ago and, under the special-meeting procedure, potentially enact the extension in a single evening.
The agenda contains only one substantive matter: the public hearing and first and final passage of the mobile home park moratorium extension.
If the extension wins approval, Lewiston’s rent freeze will continue uninterrupted beginning Sept. 29 while attorneys and the Housing Committee finish work on permanent regulations.
If it fails again, the existing moratorium will expire Sept. 28 and mobile home park rents will once again be governed primarily by Maine law while the city continues debating whether to adopt its own rent stabilization system.
Either way, Tuesday night’s vote could determine not only whether hundreds of Lewiston mobile home residents remain protected from rent increases this fall, but how far Maine’s second-largest city is willing to go in regulating the relationship between mobile homeowners and the private businesses that own the land beneath them.
The special meeting begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Lewiston City Hall, 27 Pine Street, and will be broadcast on Spectrum Government Access Channel 7 and streamed through the city’s YouTube channel.
Why stop at trailer parks, lets do property tax increases.