City Gets Proactive To Save Laurelton Mobile Home Park

Laurelton Mobile Home Park in Brick, New Jersey, has been plagued with problems. The water is constantly shut off due to leaks. The sewer frequently backs up. The roads are filled with giant potholes. There are a number of vacant homes, many with the metal or wood skin peeling off or missing on the exterior. And there are piles of junk everywhere. It sounds like a hopeless situation.

However, the Brick Township Council has voted to make the Laurelton Mobile Home Park a “redevelopment area”. Under this designation, the city has broad powers, including forcing the current owner to sell to a developer. But the council is not approaching re-development as an opportunity to get rid of the park. On the contrary, they are trying to find a way to keep the park. “We want the developer to balance the needs of all three parties – the developer, the residents and the town” said Council President Anthony Matthews.

One proposal includes re-zoning the front of the park to commercial and allowing a retail center to be built there, with a redevelopment of the park as part of the agreement. All of the proposals include putting in new water and sewer lines to the park. The city is starting the process of cleaning up the park by delivering roll-off dumpsters to the park within the next few weeks, so that tenants can begin to move the junk out of their yards and into the dumpsters.

Frank & Dave’s Analysis of This Story:

The new-found love for mobile home parks has been a continuing theme in city hall recently. When faced with the necessity of affordable housing, more and more cities are looking on mobile home parks as a much more satisfactory housing type than apartments. Why is that? Maybe it’s because the tenants are home-owners rather than renters. Or maybe it’s because mobile home parks are easier to redevelop way down the road, since they have no structures to worry about. In any event, we’re just glad they’ve had a change of attitude.

1 Comment

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  By TK, March 21, 2010 @ 11:53 am

  how many spaces ?

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