MARYSVILLE — A standing-room-only crowd is expected tonight at a hearing on the future of mobile homes in the city.
Marysville city officials are considering a plan to provide some protection for certain mobile home parks within city limits.
That plan and three other options will be up for discussion at a meeting of the city’s Planning Commission at 7 p.m. tonight at City Hall, 1049 State Ave.
The public will have a chance to speak. The planning board ultimately will make a recommendation to the city council, which will have the final say.
Under the plan, only certain types of redevelopment would be allowed at five of the 13 mobile home parks in the city.
No protection would be afforded the other parks.
City staff set aside five parks that are located in stable residential areas and as a result more likely to stay that way, city administrator Gloria Hirashima said.
Those parks are Crystal Tree Village, 16600 25th Ave. NE; Emerald Hills Estates, 14727 43rd Ave. NE; Glenwood Mobile Estates, 5900 64th Ave. NE; La Tierra, 4401 80th St. NE; and Cedar Lane 6118 67th Ave. NE.
Seven of the others are located in or near commercial or highly developed areas, Hirashima said.
“They already have a lot of pressure to convert and the (mobile-home park) use seems inconsistent with the surrounding area,” she said.
One park, Kellogg Village at 5711 100th St. NE, was approved as a planned development and already is subject to special zoning as a mobile home park, Hirashima said.
Development allowed under the new designation would include single-family homes; assisted living for seniors; adult-family homes; parks; community centers, schools and churches. It would not include apartments, condominiums or retail development.
The uses were included partly as legal protection and partly because they provide some compatibility with mobile homes, Hirashima said. Property owners have fought rules that “downzone” mobile-home park properties from allowing apartments or condos to allowing only mobile homes, she said.
Margaret Hopkins lives at Glenwood Mobile Estates, one of the parks proposed for protection. She doesn’t think the new rules would go far enough.
“It might be a better thing that they’re bringing in here,” she said. “But it still would displace a lot of people. It still does not make sense to me.”
The other options would allow up to 50 percent of each mobile-home park to be redeveloped; provide incentives in taxes, rates and fees to preserve parks; or no change.
In all, the 13 parks have 1,130 spaces. Those proposed for protection have 703, leaving more than 400 spaces unprotected, Hopkins pointed out.
“We’re very involved in protecting all the other parks,” said Hopkins, 72. “I think this is the beginning of a long process, we just have to keep fighting I guess.”
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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