Amador County – Rollingwood Estates last week principal owner Joseph Chirco defended his plan to individually subdivide his Jackson mobile home park, saying it would benefit residents, even though earlier in the week, the Jackson Planning Commission denied his application.

Chirco said Wednesday: “I looked at people there, and they were all scared.” His attorney, William Dahlin at the hearing Monday said his offer to sign long-term rental leases has been “turned on its head” by the opposition, leading to the fears of people being forced to buy or losing their homes due to raised rent.

Chirco said people in the park would not have to purchase the property if they did not want to. He said 5-year and 10-year leases would be renewable, and selling a home would not mean that the buyer would have to purchase the lot.

Somebody coming in could be able to buy their lot, and it does open up the market to a lot of other people. If they did not want buy the lot, if they just want to sell their home, Chirco said they could do that. And if they stayed, and were on fixed rates due to low income, the rent would go up only based on the Consumer Price Index.

Chirco said: “We’ve been trying to keep the park stable and comfortable. When you’re under rent control, you can’t raise the rate over the CPI.”

“If they did not want to do anything, they would not have to, because there would be no change to their lifestyle,” Chirco said, and “they would have been way ahead” if it were approved.

He said he is “kind of debating” whether to appeal the denial to the Jackson City Council, and said he feels he has the “legal right to subdivide.” He said the Commission interpreted state law to mean that it could consider results of a survey of residents as requiring 51% support of a conversion to a subdivision. Chirco said rulings have come after an appeal saying the jurisdiction cannot make a determination of subdivisions based on the survey. The City Council has supported legislation to clarify the issue.

Chirco said he believed if they asked $80,000 for a lot, and $20,000 for a home, people will purchase it. He said low values of the mobile homes were due to the economy, and “just a few years ago, those homes were selling for over $100,000 without the lot.”

He said buying the lot was just an additional option, and what Rollingwood residents pay in rent now would be roughly equivalent to what they would be paying for an $80,000 to $100,000 mortgage.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.