Old Orchard Beach set to vote on mobile home park rent control ordinance

Tenants at one of southern Maine’s most affordable mobile home parks are up in arms over the possibility of future rent increases under new ownership, and have successfully petitioned the Old Orchard Beach town council to add a rent control ordinance to ballots for the Nov. 5 election.

Voters in Old Orchard Beach will be asked: “Shall the Ordinance entitled ‘Citizens Initiative Petition, Amendments to the Town of Old Orchard Beach Code of Ordinances, Chapter 34, Housing, adding Article IV, Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Ordinance’ be adopted?”

The sale of the Old Orchard Village and Atlantic Village mobile home park (a single park with 371 spaces. Atlantic Village is comprised of double-wide units on concrete foundations, while Old Orchard Village is primarily single-wide mobile homes without foundations) in August 2024 ended the decades-long ownership by the Pope family stretching back to 1937, according to a tenant of the park.

Prior to that, while still owned by Pope doing business as Seagate Limited Partnership, tenants in the park were notified of a 14.5% rent increase in April, which became effective June 1.

Assessed by the town at $10.5 million, the property changed hands for $41 million, according to Eric Rollain, president to Follett USA, the new owner of the mobile home park.

Concerned that the increase was a precursor of things to come under the new owner, tenants in the park initiated a petition drive to establish a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks. Tenants found such an ordinance in use in a town in California and revised it to be OOB-specific.

The petition was submitted to the town in August, and was subject to a public hearing before the town council on September 3. The ordinance has been reviewed by the town’s attorney, and found to be acceptable. The council had two choices at the September meeting: approve it that evening, or allow voters to decide the matter in the form of a referendum. The latter was approved on a 4-0 vote.

 

Both supporters and those opposed to the Mobile Home Park Rent Control Ordinance in Old Orchard Beach are making their views known around town.

More recently, a standing-room only meeting hosted by Follett USA took place on Oct. 15 at a local restaurant.  Rollain presented a plan for leases that would allow tenants to lock in a given monthly rent for a specified period of time, and voiced concerns about the effectiveness of a rent control ordinance.

“You’ve got a month-to-month situation right now, I don’t blame you for being nervous,” he told those in attendance. “We want to propose another solution, the long-term lease. We can create a win-win situation, that’s the goal.”

Rollain told his audience that Follett USA owns seventeen other mobile home parks across the country. In an e-mail exchange after the meeting, he confirmed that five of those parks are subject to rent control ordinances.

A second meeting was planned for Oct. 24 via Zoom at which Rollain was scheduled to present specifics of the suggested long-term lease program, which the company is proposing as an alternative to residents approving a town-wide mobile home rent control ordinance.

A concern raised by town officials is the cost of administering the proposed ordinance. The proposed ordinance calls for an “administrator,” ostensibly a town employee that would be appointed by the town manager. The appointment of an “arbitrator” is also specified, a person who would be appointed by the administrator.

In an Oct. 9 letter to Old Orchard Village and Atlantic Village residents, Rollain suggested that the ordinance as drafted, “…did not make allowances for unanticipated costs the Town will have to assume to administer such a complex ordinance.”

He went on to say that the annual costs of office space, salary, consulting and legal fees and arbitration could exceed $100,000 according to an estimate provided by Town Manager Diana Asanza. As drafted, these costs, “…are specified to be borne by the individuals the ordinance would cover. That means you…” said the letter.

Val Philbrick is one of several mobile home park residents who are supporting the proposed rent control ordinance. She did not attend the Oct. 15 meeting hosted by Follett USA, but remains unconvinced that the new owners can be trusted to maintain the historic pattern of rent increases which, she said, were “…never more than five percent; it was 2-3% per year, some years nothing at all.”

“They’re hell-bent on instituting these leases,” said Philbrick. “I’m 69 years old – am I going to sign a ten-year lease?”

Another mobile home park, Pine Grove Village, also operates in Old Orchard Beach under a different owner. It has twenty-two spaces, and hosts primarily seniors.

Bob Hamblen can be reached at rhh0918@gmail.com.