New law to regulate twp. mobile home parks Mobile home resident calls law incomplete, wants regulations codified BY COLLEEN LUTOLF Staff Writer PHOTOS BY SCOTT PILLING staff Laurelton Mobile Home Park Homeowners Association President Bonnye Spino looks on as her son, Kip Manzoli, draws up a protest sign that Spino and her fellow residents intend to use at a protest that was scheduled for Wednesday. Residents are protesting eviction notices they received for withholding their rents from their landlord due to maintenance conditions. BRICK - A proposed law would seek to regulate township mobile home parks, but one mobile home park resident isn't happy with the law. "It's not done," Bonnye Spino said. "It's only a couple of things." Spino says the ordinance is too flimsy and that the township needs a more comprehensive ordinance to regulate standards and guidelines for mobile home park landlords. She compared Brick's proposed ordinance with a Barnegat ordinance that regulates that municipality's mobile home parks - the law was about 10 pages, Brick's is two. "These all tell you the rules and regulations," she said, flipping through Barnegat's ordinance. "For electricity, for lighting, how to apply for a license, a mobile home park plan. It gives you everything you can do and what they can't do. There's not enough in there to protect us. If other towns have them, why don't we have one?" Potholes like these were one of the reasons the mobile home park residents began complaining of park conditions earlier this year. Eight months later, potholes remain. Time was a factor, said Township Councilman Stephen C. Acropolis. "Does it address all the issues? Absolutely not," Acropolis said. "The township attorney came up with an initial overlay zone that we can get done right away. That's the reason why we're putting this one through." The council will work on a more comprehensive ordinance, he said. "To me the biggest concern has been people moving into the park under age 55," he said. "The second thing is replacing some mobile homes. Right now you can't replace them." While the law seeks to codify mobile home park regulations, which are currently unregulated by the township, it also allows a landlord to replace or move a mobile home without obtaining variances from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, according to the ordinance. The law, which was scheduled to be introduced at the Oct. 10 Township Council meeting, would allow landlords to relocate or replace mobile home units within a mobile home park only if the landlord abides by regulations set by the new law and the homes' replacement or relocation does not increase the number of mobile homes within the park. Morris recently presented to the council at a public but untelevised workshop meeting plans to renovate his mobile home park that he purchased in January 2005. Although the plans were vague, they included relocating mobile homes to provide water and sewer upgrades, paved roads, as well as building a retail center on the eastern portion of the site. The Mobile Home Park Overlay Zone mandates that an office staffed Monday through Friday exist on-site with a 24-hour telephone service available to residents for emergencies; and posted at the on-site office will be a copy of the mobile home park's bylaws, standard lease provisions and fees applicable to all mobile home parks within the complex. The property will be subjected to a deed restriction that could establish the park as age restricted to residents age 55 years and older, and require a permit be obtained and inspections made before relocation, replacement or demolition of any mobile home is made. The overlay zone would also require that mobile homes would not be moved to or located within a setback location, and establishes setbacks for mobile home parks to be 75 feet for a front-yard setback and 15 feet for a rear- or side-yard setback. No mobile home could exist within 10 feet of another mobile home, or five feet from a shed, according to the ordinance. The ordinance is not meant to make Morris' redevelopment for the site easier for the developer, Acropolis said. "I hope no one thinks this makes it any easier on him because we're tightening up the zoning," Acropolis said. "What we've done is tightened up the ordinance." Mobile homes now exist within what will be a 75-foot setback. Once the ordinance is adopted, they won't, he said. "I'm disappointed we can't make Bonnye 100 percent happy," he said. Once introduced by the council Oct. 10, the law would be referred to the Planning Board for a recommendation before a second reading and final vote by the council. The Planning Board has 30 days to review the law. from a shed, according to the ordinance. The ordinance is not meant to make Morris' redevelopment for the site easier for the developer, Acropolis said. "I hope no one thinks this makes it any easier on him because we're tightening up the zoning," Acropolis said. "What we've done is tightened up the ordinance." Mobile homes now exist within what will be a 75-foot setback. Once the ordinance is adopted, they won't, he said. "I'm disappointed we can't make Bonnye 100 percent happy," he said. Once introduced by the council Oct. 10, the law would be referred to the Planning Board for a recommendation before a second reading and final vote by the council. The Planning Board has 30 days to review the law.