Johnson County Supervisors will meet privately with mobile home park owner Havenpark

Push for meeting comes amid residents’ calls for a rent increase moratorium

Manufactured home residents gather for a news conference at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Iowa City on June 18. The conference brought residents of Iowa City manufactured home parks including Lake Ridge, Modern Manor and Sunrise Village, along with the Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition, Iowa Manufactured Home Residents Network and elected officials and community members together to call for Utah-based Havenpark Communities and other out-of-state owners of the county’s mobile home parks to stop repeated lot rent increases and to meet its obligations to maintain park safety and maintenance. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.

IOWA CITY — Members of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and representatives of Utah-based Havenpark Communities, owner of mobile home parks across the county, are looking to move forward with a private meeting to discuss resident concerns.

The company and the supervisors have been exchanging letters for months about planned rent increases, the state of the mobile home parks and a potential meeting date and format.

During that time, residents have continued to push for a two-year moratorium on rent increases due to concerns over park conditions.

In its most recent letter, the board requested that representatives from Havenpark attend a work session meeting on Nov. 13 or Dec. 11. That request was declined by Havenpark, which said it would be open to meeting with the board in a private setting.

“We understand the Board’s preference for a public meeting. After reviewing the matters raised, we believe a private meeting would provide the most effective setting for a clear and accurate discussion. Several issues involve operational details, compliance obligations, and community-specific information, and a private conversation will allow us to address these directly and clarify certain misstatements that have circulated publicly,” Havenpark Senior Vice President of Operations Jerry Fenstermaker wrote in a letter to the board.

Johnson County Residents United, a group that advocates for safe conditions in mobile home parks, has voiced concerns about rent increases, questionable water quality and poor park maintenance at Havenpark-owned properties.

Throughout the back and forth with the supervisors, Havenpark has said it addressed resident concerns with $2.1 million in improvements, and more on the way, across Sunrise Village, Modern Manor and Lake Ridge Estates.

Members of the board plan to meet with Johnson County Residents United and draft a response with potential meeting dates to Havenpark by Dec. 12.

Meetings of the Board of Supervisors are subject to Iowa’s open meeting laws, which limit the reasons a meeting can be closed to the public.

If a quorum of the elected body is not in attendance — for the Johnson County supervisors, that is fewer than three members of the board — an open meeting is not required. Board members cannot vote and no policy decisions can be made in discussions where a quorum is not present.

Johnson County Residents United has previously said if a public meeting is not possible, it would like to be represented at a meeting with Havenpark by Supervisors Rod Sullivan and V Fixmer-Oraiz.

The two supervisors said during a work session last week they plan to continue checking in with Johnson County Residents United, which typically meets on a biweekly basis, ahead of any communication with Havenpark.

Johnson County Board of Supervisors member Rod Sullivan speaks with the other board members, including V Fixmer-Oraiz, about an agenda item during a meeting at the Johnson County Health and Human Services Building in Iowa City on Aug. 20. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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