Fresno commission denies mobile‑home park owner’s request to pass repaving cost to residents

FRESNO — The Fresno Mobile Home Park Rent Review and Stabilization Commission voted to deny Country West Community LP’s nonautomatic rent increase request for Country Living Mobile Home Park, rejecting an owner proposal to pass the cost of recent roadway work to residents.

The commission approved only the automatic Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment of $7.82 per space and found that the $37.07-per-space amount the owner sought for repaving did not meet the Fresno Municipal Code standards for a capital improvement.

Staff liaison Sarah Papazian, who presented the city’s analysis, told commissioners the ordinance allows two automatic increases (the CPI amount) and a separate nonautomatic amount that owners may seek for specified factors. Papazian said the owner’s application identified repaving as the single relevant factor but that staff found three primary discrepancies: title fees overstated in the owner’s packet, an incorrect count of park spaces, and a loan repayment term that differed from the amortization period owners proposed to residents. “That is what the owner will be repaying,” Papazian said of the lender’s 10-year maturity date, which she contrasted with the 15-year repayment the owner offered residents. She recommended commissioners consider whether the work qualified as a capital improvement or was ordinary repair or maintenance, which the ordinance excludes from…