No help for RV park relocation

Friday, June 23, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

Although intended to be only a temporary roost, the Boulder Lakes RV Park has been a permanent home to hundreds of residents for years.

That will come to an abrupt end next month, when the park's residents will be forced to vacate to make way for homes built to be permanent - for others.

To many Boulder Lakes residents, the way in which they are being forced to move is as distressing - perhaps more so - than the relocation itself.

Mobile home park closures have become a common story in the Las Vegas Valley in recent years, as rising property values prompted many park owners to opt for more lucrative uses for their land. Over the past four years, more than 4,000 spaces in valley mobile home parks have been replaced by strip malls, subdivisions and casinos, leaving residents scrambling to find a new location among dwindling choices.

The considerable inconveniences posed by those closures are at least mildly softened, however, by state laws and local policies under which mobile home residents forced to move have nine months to do so, have the cost of moving their mobile home paid and receive up to $1,500 to cover out-of-pocket expenses.

But because state law treats RV parks and mobile home parks differently, residents at Boulder Lakes, which has more than 400 RV spaces, have been given less time to find a new place to live and will receive no money for relocation expenses.

"The sad thing about this is that a lot of the park's residents are elderly and have been there many years," said Joe McKnight, a two-year resident of Boulder Lakes. "They are living off Social Security. It's too expensive for some of them to move because their (mobile homes) may need repairs, bearings or tires."

When home builder DR Horton bought the 50-acre site on Boulder Highway north of Henderson in May for $3.3 million, the company gave the park's residents until the end of July to leave - at their own expense - to make way for a housing development.

Residents cried foul, arguing that they should be treated the same as those who live in mobile home parks.

The law, however, is not on their side.

The home builder is not required to give RV park residents any longer to move or help cover their moving expenses, said Renee Diamond, the administrator of the state Division of Manufactured Housing .

Under state law, mobile home parks are considered permanent residences for manufactured homes. Because moving them can be costly and sometimes impossible, the law provides for compensation in the event of forced relocations.

RV parks, by contrast, are intended to be temporary homes for RVs or trailers with attached wheels that are easily mobile, she said.

"I have empathy for those folks," Diamond said. "I understand some of them have been living there a long time. But the law is clear. They are treated more like apartment renters. The law does not provide for their relocation."

Under Boulder Lakes' zoning in unincorporated Clark County, stays at the park are supposed to be limited to nine months, said Clark County Planning Manager Chuck Pulsipher. Although the law requires people living at the park for nine consecutive months to leave for at least one day - after which they could return for another nine months - that provision has not been enforced by the park's owner, allowing some residents to stay at Boulder Lakes for years without the hassle of the brief departure.

"Most of these RV (residents) are snowbirds who come here in the fall and stay until the spring before heading back," Pulsipher said. "Nine months works out well for a vast majority of RVs."

That's not easing the pain of Boulder Lakes' year-round residents.

"I feel like I have been deserted," said one elderly man, an 11-year resident who did not want to give his name. Neighbors said the man does not have the money to move and they worry about what will happen to him.

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who earlier this year proposed that the county impose an 18-month moratorium on mobile home park redevelopment, said what's happening to Boulder Lakes' residents underlines the need to change the law. (Her proposal was not adopted, but instead led to a compromise under which mobile home park owners voluntarily agreed to extend the time residents have to move from the state-required six months to nine months.)

"It's terrible, but there is nothing I can do, nor can anyone else," Williams said. "They are supposed to be temporary housing. The owner should not have allowed them to make it a permanent residence."

DR Horton attorney David Jennings said the company told tenants it was willing to work with them to give them the time needed to relocate. As for compensating the residents for their moving expenses, Jennings said only that the company has complied with the law.

Some Boulder Lakes residents said they sympathize with older residents on fixed incomes for whom the move can be particularly trying, but that the rules were clear that it was an RV park, not a permanent home.

Glenn Moreau, a 45-year-old plumber who travels throughout the country, said he might move to Pahrump or other outlying areas because space is limited in other local mobile home parks. But while he accepts his situation, he says the developer could have handled things differently.

"They bought the land and have the right to do what they want," Moreau said, "but how they handled it was rude."