Mobile homes movable

Amelia Odeen (Nov. 21) proposes that government should step in and force certain businesses to never change, forever. Specifically, she wants mobile home parks in Spokane Valley to be prohibited from being redeveloped into any other land use by imposing restrictive zoning.

Saving mobile home parks by government intervention will not make an unprofitable park suddenly profitable. It will not make the park suddenly more beautiful, safe or able to function 50 more years.

U.S. Census says out of 36,625 households in Spokane Valley, there are 26,850 homes (not apartments). Of those homes, about 700 are manufactured homes located in mobile home parks. That’s 1.9 percent of Spokane Valley households. The numbers do not warrant taking the land from the property owner and giving it to the tenants to use indefinitely.

Older parks do not close without reason. Once they’re run-down, or one-third empty, or they require hundreds of thousands of dollars in upgrades, they become unprofitable. Any homeowner can have their manufactured home moved if a park must close. They are movable, and there’s a state fund to help pay if need be.

Robert Cochran

Spokane