City: Mobile Homes Need More Space But Airway Heights Park Owners Want To Keep Their Distances The Way The Are

Mobile home park owner Bob Boyles may be stuck in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but he doesn’t like the time warp.

Boyles and several other mobile home park owners and operators in Airway Heights say city regulations are preventing them from updating the older homes in their parks.

They say the regulations, which require mobile homes to be at least 20 feet apart, are overkill. The old regulations required a 15-foot cushion.

“They’re trying to make the world super safe,” said Boyles, whose park is more than 40 years old. “Low-income housing can’t be super safe because it’s low-income housing. Otherwise, it’d be highincome housing.”

The regulation change actually was adopted in 1988, but the “new” regulations haven’t been enforced until recently.

The homes in place before the regulation change can stay where they are.

But new mobile homes brought into a park have to meet new city rules. That means some parks either would have to keep their older models or rent fewer models.

City officials say they’re trying to prevent people from being killed in runaway fires.

“These owners look at it as a dollar. We look at it as life safety,” Fire Chief Toby Combs said. “We still have to safeguard those peoples’ lives just like we would if they were rich and famous.”

Code enforcement officer Bill Bailey has pictures that show the aftermath of a fire Nov. 29 that gutted one mobile home and scarred the one next door, nine feet away.

“If we were to issue a permit at 10 feet and a mobile home burned down, I couldn’t live with myself,” Bailey said.

Mobile home park owners and city officials will meet March 20 to discuss the problem. Boyles and other owners want the city to adopt looser spacing rules.

Ken Kalin, who owns two parks in Airway Heights with about 90 mobile homes and 200 residents, filed a lawsuit to stop Airway Heights from enforcing the rule.

“It’s just made it impossible to operate,” Kalin said. “It’s just ridiculous.”

The lots in one of Kalin’s mobile home parks are so cramped that it’s created a fire hazard, said one resident, who asked to remain anonymous because he feared losing his wood-burning stove.

“They’ve had several trailers burn down out here,” the resident said. “Nobody’s happy out here because the lot rents are too high. There’s no improvements, there’s dirt roads, no sidewalks and no place for the kids to play. But they keep skyrocketing the lot rates.”

Boyles’ park doesn’t meet city rules. His newest model is from 1984, but most were built in the 1960s and 1970s.

The grass is nicely groomed and the bushes squarely cut in Boyles’ park, but some of the homes are starting to rust.

Boyles wants to move in newer model homes with Sheetrock interiors for a fire barrier and more insulation. But he has no plans to move in new homes under the city’s current rules.

That means the old homes will stay, sometimes closer than 10 feet to each other.

“You couldn’t do it and make it pay,” he said. “You’d have to close down and move them out to the county.”