Mobile home parks to stay

Published 9:00 pm Friday, July 14, 2006

The Housing Authority of Snohomish County next week is expected to approve an agreement to buy two mobile home parks from a Lynnwood developer for $9 million.

The agreement would bring an end to a fierce debate over the future of the Lynnwood mobile home parks, which provide housing to people who are predominantly 55 and older.

One of the parks, The Squire, is at 4515 176th St. SW and has 49 mobile homes on 5.27 acres. The other, Kingsbury East, is at 17408 44th Ave. W. and has 45 mobile homes on 5.5 acres.

Funding for the purchase is expected to come from federal and state grants and tax-exempt bonds.

The two mobile home parks were bought by Echelbarger Properties Inc. in the spring for $6.8 million, President Mike Echelbarger said.

Echelbarger said he planned to take the two properties and develop the land for 69 single-family homes on 4,000-square-foot lots. Each home would have sold for about $600,000, he said.

He would have prepared the land for single-family development and sold the lots. Once that was done, he said, the land probably would have been worth $10 million to $11 million.

In May, however, the plans to develop the property triggered demonstrations by about 100 of the mobile home residents. They wanted the property kept as it is to provide affordable housing for seniors.

They asked the Housing Authority of Snohomish County to buy the property. The city of Lynnwood unanimously approved a resolution supporting the purchase.

The pending agreement would pay Echelbarger $9 million for the properties, said housing authority executive director Bob Davis, but an appraisal of the property must be made first.

“We can’t pay more than the appraised value,” Davis said.

Echelbarger has agreed he will still accept $9 million for the properties if the appraisal comes in higher than that amount, Davis said.

Next week, the housing authority is expected to authorize Davis to complete the necessary purchase and sale agreements. Then work will begin on getting the required federal and state funding.

Echelbarger said he has mixed emotions about the agreement. “I’m a developer,” he said. “We develop neighborhoods.”

The property was a great opportunity to develop land that had been used as a mobile home park for 35 to 40 years, he said.

However, mobile home residents and city officials were interested in keeping the land as mobile home parks, Echelbarger said. For that reason, he said, he thinks the offer by the housing authority to buy the property “works out well for everybody.”

Over time, the housing authority will make improvements to the parks’ water, sewer and electrical systems, Davis said. Eventually, the housing authority plans to replace the mobile homes with new manufactured housing.

Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.