Trailer park sale puts Carbondale in tough spot

CARBONDALE Colorado— The potential sale of a Carbondale trailer park has 32 working-class families wondering how much longer they will have a place to live.

Garfield Court Park is under contract for sale to an undisclosed buyer, a co-owner confirmed Thursday. It was listed for sale last fall for $4.75 million. Word in the real estate community is that there are two backup contracts in case the first deal falls
through.

The scenario with the trailer park has become a familiar story in Carbondale and
Basalt as real estate values have soared in recent years. A handful of large mobile
home parks have been eyed as lucrative redevelopment opportunities for real estate
investors.

That results in the loss of the least expensive housing in the valley.

Basalt officials anticipated the redevelopment and passed regulations that require
replacement of all the affordable housing eliminated by redevelopment projects. It
applies to the Roaring Fork Mobile Home Park and the Pan and Fork Mobile Home
Park, home to a combined 90 households.

Carbondale officials contemplated such regulations, but, thus far, have deemed them
unnecessary.

Carbondale Councilman Russ Criswell said the fate of the residents of Garfield Court
Park “depends on the developer.” He doubted that the political will exists to require
the developers to provide replacement housing for the current residents.

“We can’t even come to concurrence that we have [an affordable housing] problem,”
said Criswell, who is leaving the board in May because of term limits. He is serving
his second four-year term.

Longtime housing enclave

Garfield Court Park has 32 trailers crammed onto 2.3 acres between Garfield and
Euclid avenues, on the east end of town just a block off Main Street and adjacent to
Snowmass Road. The conditions of the homes range from ramshackle and junky to
tidy and homey.

The mobile home park was established in 1972, according to Garfield County assessor’s records. The park is owned by Garfield Court Inc., whose officers are Molly Garland and Robert Olenick, both of Carbondale. The park owners don’t own the trailers.

The assessor’s office assigned an actual value of $1,382,590 to the land and $78,400 to the improvements.

Olenick said Thursday he was reluctant to discuss the potential sale because of uncertainty surrounding the deal. He said the closing has been delayed and indicated that decisions that must be made by the town government will affect the
proposed deal.

“We’re just in limbo,” he said.

Town has leverage

Although the trailer park is only a few blocks from downtown Carbondale, it is mostly outside of the town’s boundaries and in unincorporated Garfield County. The property is zoned for high-density residential use and, realistically, new owners likely would be required to seek annexation into the town because they would need municipal services.

The Carbondale Town Council recently held a work session to discuss adding to annexation requirements, according to Town Manager Tom Baker. He said the board members are concerned about how redevelopment of trailer parks could affect current residents.

While no decisions have been made yet, the council is considering increased affordable housing requirements for annexed projects, Baker said. The town currently requires that 15 percent of residential units in new projects be affordable housing. The board is considering increasing that number and designating one-half of the remaining housing to be designated resident occupied. RO housing is sort of affordable housing lite. It doesn’t have as many restrictions as other affordable housing.

The Carbondale council also is considering making a real estate assessment a requirement for annexation. Revenues from that assessment would be used for affordable housing, Baker said.

‘Gentrification of Carbondale’

Carbondale experienced the loss of a trailer park to redevelopment earlier this decade. The Bonanza Trailer Park, home to about 80 people, was purchased in May 2001 and the residents were informed the site across from Town Hall would be redeveloped. Some residents appealed to the council to force the developers to provide replacement housing. The council declined to take action.

Developers Bill Smith and Ed Podolak were widely credited with generosity toward the tenants. They gave them several months of advance notice of eviction and provided months of free rent, according to published reports.

The developers also gave a $1,500 relocation allowance.

Nevertheless, the loss of the low-income housing has spurred some Carbondale residents to call for replacement housing regulations. The Bonanza saga struck a cord with people for a while, Criswell said, “but we have a short memory.”

Meanwhile, average home prices have soared to about $1 million in Carbondale, pricing out many people, Criswell said. “It’s the gentrification of Carbondale,” he said.