Residents of Lake Elmo manufactured home park lament unreasonable rent increases, enforcing ordinances
LAKE ELMO, Minn. – Afraid and intimidated in Lake Elmo.
People living in a manufactured home park turned to the city council for help on Tuesday, asking for help with what they call unreasonable rent increases and enforcing ordinances. But that's not the only thing they say is happening at Cimarron Park.
Cimarron Park in Lake Elmo is home to about 500 families. People own their manufactured home but rent the land. They say the rent increase doubled in January while they're getting less and less.
"My concern is the heart of this community is are veterans and senior citizens and they're fixed incomes, they're being priced out of their homes," Brey Mafi said.
Mafi and John Murphy are on the resident's association committee.
"You just can't up and leave. You have to find a buyer for it and try to sell. But then where do you go?" Murphy said.
They're trying to find solutions for a community they say is living in fear of what will happen if they speak up.
"They're afraid. This is their home, and this is all they have," Murphy said.
"There's constantly rules thrown at them, we don't know why," Mafi said.
They say they've raised issues about lighting, safety and maintenance, while navigating new community rules from the management company. The latest is about parking -- no longer allowed on the street.
"All we want to do is talk and come to reasonable accommodations," Murphy said.
The company who owns the park, ELS, responded saying in part that increases in rent are in line with comparable options in the area, and say enforcing street parking rules is to ensure emergency vehicles can get through.
WCCO was there two years ago as people had similar worries. They say it's only gotten worse and have also turned to legal representation.
"A lot of people have just found themselves silenced and just kind of put up or shut up with what happens here," Mafi said.
Several residents have filed complaints with the attorney general's office.
Below is the company's full statement:
The satisfaction of our residents is very important to us and we appreciate the opportunity to hear from them and understand and address their concerns.
Cimarron Park is a desirable manufactured home community in the Lake Elmo area, featuring open areas of green space throughout the property, treed sites, and professional on-site management. The community is located in Lake Elmo, which is a popular housing market due to its proximity to Minneapolis-St. Paul, range of nearby recreational activities, and beautiful natural setting. Residents of Cimarron Park enjoy amenities including a swimming pool, golf course, playground, basketball court, community garden, and access to after school programming and activities on site for the kids of the community.
We make it a priority to regularly meet with residents and discuss any issues they have, including rent increases. Rent levels at the property have increased an average of approximately 4.74% annually over the last five years, which includes an increase of 7.86% for 2023. Increases and rent levels are in line with those of comparable housing options in the area.
We consider the management of the community to be a partnership with residents and look for opportunities to work together on solutions to fit everyone's needs. We recognize the economic uncertainty that some residents experienced as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, and some continue to experience. For this reason, we established a rent payment deferral program in March 2020 to help residents in need of assistance. A hardship program is currently available for long-term residents who experience difficulty making rent payments and anyone in need of financial support is encouraged to speak to the community manager to make the necessary arrangements.
In the past year, more than 25 homes were purchased in Cimarron Park by customers who shopped in the area for their next home and chose the community for its convenient location, amenities, and the value they found here. Once they have chosen Cimarron Park, homeowners live in the community for an average of more than ten years. The trend of new residents purchasing homes combined with Cimarron Park's nearly 90% occupancy rate indicates that the property is a popular choice for residents moving to the Lake Elmo area. Furthermore, over the last three years, nearly 30% of our new home sales were attributed to referrals from existing residents, which is the ultimate endorsement of the community.
In the interest of safety and ensuring that emergency vehicles are able to navigate the community streets uninhibited, we mailed a letter to all residents of Cimarron Park on May 9, 2022 explaining ways in which the community would be enforcing its existing rules related to street parking, and that new signage would be installed prohibiting street parking. The letter indicated the new signage would go into effect on July 15, 2022, however, when some residents requested additional time, the community pushed back enforcement of the prohibition on street parking until September 15, providing residents more than 120 days' notice.
The limitation of a maximum of two vehicles per homesite is not a new rule. All homesites at Cimarron Park are equipped with a paved parking area that accommodates the maximum two vehicles per homesite that is outlined in the Community Guidelines. The community also provides for guest parking for a duration of 72 hours and offers residents the ability to obtain an extended parking pass from the community office if guest parking is needed beyond the 72-hour duration.
The safety and well-being of residents and guests is very important to us and the parking restrictions help ensure emergency vehicles have unobstructed access to our community when needed.
We look forward to many more years of working together with the residents of Cimarron Park to ensure the community remains among the premiere manufactured housing communities in the area.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Ludovic
