<DIV>One person's junk is another person's home. It would be interesting to see how many of the tenants are single mothers or low income retired. That being said, it is well within his rights as a property owner to do what he wants to his property. It also would be interesting to see how many of the "independent landlords" will give adequate notice to their tenants. You see, technically, Mr. Mack only has to give eviction notice to the owner of the trailers. It will be up to those owners to give notice to their tenants. Hopefully they read the newspaper and see the writing on the wall so they can prepare for it. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I feel bad for the two owners that actually live in their trailers but not for the slumlords that are "individual landlords." There certainly will be no trailer park willing to take their trailers because they are too old. But this certainly poses a problem for Mr. Mack too. The own!
ers are
forced to abandon the trailers because there is no where to move them to and even if there was, they would be required to purchase new windows that would cost more than the trailer is even worth. So what does Mr. Mack do with them? He will have to pay someone to come in and haul them away. Then he will likely have to pay someone to take them off of his hands as well. There aren't any trailer junk yards like we have for cars. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As I sit here and type this, I am starting to feel for Mr. Mack and see his point on this. Four to six months is certainly more than fair notice. Plus only two of the people who live there actually own their trailer. Honestly, his investment in this park appears to be a "money pit" and will take some development for him to get out of it. <BR><BR><B><I>Joan Opyr <joanopyr@earthlink.net></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">October 16, 2003<BR>Moscow-Pullman Daily News<BR><BR>Moscow landowner has plans for new trailer park; Evictions will precede <BR>construction.<BR>By Hillary Hamm<BR> <BR>Dan Mack doesn’t want to be a “slumlord.” Mack said he bought <BR>Renaissance Park, a 15-space trailer park east of Moscow in 2001 as an <BR>investment. He did not expect to pick up trash and maintain trailers <BR>that aren’t his. He wants to demolish the park and start from scratch. <BR>“This park is going to fall apart,” Mack said. “There’s a year or two <BR>years until this thing is really going to be a problem. Some of these <BR>trailers really aren’t worth anything.”<BR><BR>By next year, Mack said he expects to have 36 new two- and <BR>three-bedroom, single-wide homes in place. In order to begin <BR>construction, Mack must first clear the existing park by evicting all <BR>the tenants. “When and if this development happens,!
these
trailers have <BR>to go, whether people are living in them or not,” he said. “Once we <BR>develop it, the lot they’re sitting on is going to be worth more than <BR>it is right now.”<BR><BR>Thirteen of the park’s trailers are owned by independent landlords, <BR>while the remaining two are owned by the people who live in them. As <BR>development furthers, landlords will have 120 days to move their <BR>trailers off the property. Latah County Deputy Prosecutor Robin Eckmann <BR>said Mack is within his rights to evict tenants. Mack has to provide <BR>tenants with a written 90-day notice that indicates he doesn’t want to <BR>renew the lease agreement. He also doesn’t have to provide a reason for <BR>eviction. “I’m not aware of any law violations based on my knowledge of <BR>this,” Eckmann said. “I’m not aware of any illegal conduct.”<BR><BR>A number of residents of the park recently sent letters to Latah County <BR>commissioners to voice their opposition to the future development.
<BR>Residents of the park and owners of trailers declined to comment to the <BR>Daily News. Mack said he purchased the park with the best of <BR>intentions: to clean it up and provide a better living environment for <BR>tenants. “It’s an investment that I want to make. I think there’s a <BR>need for more family type housing out here,” he said. “What I’m trying <BR>to do will benefit everyone.”<BR><BR>But Mack said the project has been frustrating because the park is <BR>located in the area of city impact. The 10,818-acre impact area <BR>surrounds the city of Moscow and is designated for future city growth. <BR>The city and county have been in negotiations for the last six months <BR>regarding how the area is to be governed. City codes will be enforced <BR>in the area, said Moscow Assistant City Planner Bill Belknap.<BR><BR>Belknap said Mack went through the city process and his project has <BR>been recommended to the county for approval. The recommendation comes <BR>with so!
me
conditions. Mack must widen the internal roads of the park <BR>and provide a stormwater detention pond, Belknap said. “It went fairly <BR>well,” Belknap said of Mack’s discussions with the city. “It’s a pretty <BR>long process.”<BR><BR>Mack said he feels he is being given the run-around by the city and <BR>county on what he can and cannot do on his property. “I’m trying to <BR>meet two entities of governing that have two vehicles of governing that <BR>don’t mesh,” Mack said. “I’m caught between two different things right <BR>now.”<BR><BR>Mack had his first meeting with the county Tuesday. Commissioners and <BR>county planning and building officials will review Mack’s request. Also <BR>on Tuesday, Mack approached commissioners about leasing a 1-acre parcel <BR>of county-owned land. Mack would like to lease the parcel for $1 to <BR>meet city code and to increase the aesthetics of the park. The parcel <BR>is adjacent to the park, on the corner of Carmichael Road and the Troy
<BR>Highway. Commissioners have not made a decision.<BR><BR>The land, Mack said, would meet his requirements for a trailer park <BR>recreation area and provide visitors to the Latah Trail a place to <BR>rest. Mack said he would invest nearly $60,000 into the project for <BR>grass, trees and maintenance of the parcel. “We want this to be a nice <BR>park,” he said. “No matter what happens, if this is developed it would <BR>be a benefit to my tenants.” Mack has begun to build a new pump station <BR>and replace water mains to increase the water potability on the 5-acre <BR>park. The project has cost him more than $20,000.<BR> <BR>Mack said he intends to give both the landlords and residents ample <BR>warning to move out, but because of a stop and start work schedule, he <BR>can’t give them much more information. “We don’t have anything to tell <BR>them,” he said. “I would like to tell them (to leave) and get moving on <BR>this. They’re going to have to go sooner or
later.”<BR><BR>Clearing the trailer park may not be easy. Under city code, trailers <BR>built before 1976 must meet certain window, wiring and plumbing <BR>requirements before being moved. Mack said many of the trailers in his <BR>park are old and may pose problems. “I really don’t feel it’s my <BR>responsibility to take care of these people after they chose to move <BR>there,” he said. “But I’m sure some of them will figure out that it <BR>would be cheaper to leave their trailer. And at what point do people <BR>feel sorry for the landlord who has to move all their junk?”<BR><BR>Regardless, Mack said he intends to go ahead with the development and <BR>finish the job. “We’re trying to fix these things, but we can’t do it <BR>with the trailers there,” he said. “Something has to be done one way or <BR>another, and I’d just as soon develop it than patch it up as it is. <BR>What we have now is a dilapidated park. I’m getting nickled and dimed <BR>out of
this.”<BR> <BR>_____________________________________________________<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR>http://www.fsr.net <BR>mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯<BR></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><BR></DIV><p>
<hr size=1>Yahoo! Shopping<br>
Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/footer/shopping/*http://shopping.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTE2bzVzaHJtBF9TAzk1OTQ5NjM2BHNlYwNtYWlsdGFnBHNsawNob2xpZGF5LTA1
">Yahoo! Shopping</a>