The News Show Ep. 16: The question of MHPs

At the May 15 Committee of the Whole meeting, manufactured home park resident Matt Coté presented to Revelstoke city council. He’s concerned that the 18 manufactured home parks in Revelstoke will slowly be eliminated, and residents displaced.

The city in 2023 adopted the Manufactured Home Park Redevelopment, Residential Tenant Protection and Strata Conversion policy. The idea behind the policy is that if the owner of a MHP wants to rezone for development, they have to offer residents the right of first refusal to buy their pads. If they can’t buy their pads, the city wants the owners to work with residents so they can continue to affordably lease their pads.

Revelstoke’s lead planner, Paul Simon, says the intention is to prevent any resident from being displaced. The policy has never been tested, however Simon said during the May 15 meeting that the owner of a park had met with the city to get the process going.

Coté thinks the policy is well-intentioned, but he worries it will incentivize park owners towards development. He wants the city to maintain MHPs as they are now, to protect them. He wants the city to amend wording in the policy so it doesn’t encourage development; he wants the policy to contain clear rules around how a park owner will compensate a manufactured home owner if they are forced out of a park that’s being developed, and he wants the city to lobby the province to change the Manufactured Home Tenancy Act so that prospective buyers of manufactured homes can get a mortgage. 

Check out the audio story above for all the details.

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meagan@stokefm.com