Fort Collins staff recommend performance‑based mobile‑home‑park licensing, manager certification and cost‑recovery powers

City staff recommended that Fort Collins adopt a performance‑based mobile home park licensing program to expand enforcement tools over park owners and to prioritize urgent habitability and infrastructure concerns, staff said during a work session presentation Wednesday.

The proposal responds to structural differences between mobile home parks and other housing types: park infrastructure (streets, water lines, lighting) is typically privately owned and maintained by park owners, and residents lack the same neighborhood governance mechanisms available in some other housing types. JC Ward, a staff presenter, told council the city reviewed the distribution of complaints and found gaps in the city’s ability to directly mitigate private‑infrastructure problems: "For mobile home parks to have comparable outcomes with our other neighborhood types, we have to address these differences in regulation, enforcement, and oversight," Ward said.

Scope and priorities: staff said there are roughly 1,400 home sites in 10 mobile home parks inside the city limits; nine parks meet the state’s definition for mobile home parks. After evaluating 88 potential strategies, staff prioritized a smaller set of owner‑focused actions that address frequently reported and urgent problems and that can be resolved through escalating enforcement. A central staff point person and an integrated compliance program are core features of the recommendation, staff said.

Key elements of the staff recommendation: the proposed licensing program would include mandatory park registration and data submission; a publicly available data dashboard; manager certification and training; required infrastructure and condition assessments (with city or contractor completion and cost recovery when owners fail to act); emergency abatement for hazardous trees and supplying potable water and toilets during outages longer than 12 hours; and leak‑detection work with cost recovery for confirmed infrastructure leaks. Staff said early noncompliance penalties and owner fees could fund initial program costs and that a recognition program would reward fully compliant parks.

"Would council like to move forward with a mobile home park licensing program that supports expanded enforcement strategies?" JC Ward asked council, framing the request for direction. Jacob Castillo, the city’s chief sustainability officer, emphasized the recommendation aims to prioritize root causes and operational changes and noted staff are not requesting new general‑fund ongoing resources tonight: "We are not here asking for new resources," he said, adding that staff expect to rely on creative redeployments, temporary surge staffing and fee revenue.

Enforcement and legal limits: staff said the city and the state’s mobile home park oversight program currently rely mostly on penalties and have limited authority to force physical repairs on private infrastructure; the licensing approach would grant the city clearer authority to abate hazardous conditions and charge costs back to park owners. Staff noted matters that require legal determinations — for example, enforceability of specific lease terms or whether a park action constitutes retaliation — would remain under the state oversight program or legal processes.

Funding and staffing approach: staff proposed phased implementation starting with the most urgent items (water outages, hazardous trees, suspected leaks) and adding long‑term priorities (comprehensive water‑infrastructure oversight and maintenance schedules) as compliance and revenue allow. Potential funding sources listed by staff include manager‑licensing fees, early noncompliance penalties, fee‑for‑service work (for example, city‑led leak detection for a fee) and grants or partnerships; staff said a fully general‑fund‑dependent model would not be sustainable.

Community engagement and next steps: staff reported outreach to resident associations, nonprofit housing partners, La Familia and the Mevos group, as well as coordination with county officials and state agencies. Councilmembers asked for follow‑up details on likely program costs, fee schedules, collection/enforcement procedures for unpaid fees and the expected timeline for voluntary compliance before escalation. Staff said more detailed cost and implementation analysis will follow as council considers direction.