Oakland Park residents informed the Austin City Council Monday that the city of Austin might be included in a suit the residents are considering against the management of Oakland Mobile Home Park.

Tuesday, October 19, 1999

Oakland Park residents informed the Austin City Council Monday that the city of Austin might be included in a suit the residents are considering against the management of Oakland Mobile Home Park.

"There is a possibility of naming the city of Austin in the suit for not enforcing the ordinances," Oakland Park resident Mark Pregler said, after outlining several of the reasons COOP (Citizens of Oakland Park) are considering legal action. More than 25 park residents attended Monday’s council meeting.

One of the primary problem areas according to Pregler, was the first as well as the most recent lease offered by the owners of the park, who purchased the mobile home park more than a year ago. Pregler called both lease offerings "illegal." The issue is not simply about the lease, however, both Pregler and COOP chair Linnea Burtch pointed out cases of the park management not following correct legal procedure.

City attorney David Hoversten said the city had no authority to interfere in negotiations, as with the lease problems, that involved private complaints. The attorney said he couldn’t speak to ordinance violations, however, because he didn’t have adequate information.

Burtch presented the council with a petition signed by park residents as well as pictures of several violations.

"We are being threatened for standing up for our rights," Pregler said. "We’ve had letters that have basically told us we ‘are uneducated and ignorant.’ We have the right to negotiate an acceptable lease."

Complaints that the managers of the park had moved nine trailers in without permits were questioned by council member Dick Lang, who stated that he intends to investigate the violations as soon as possible. Lang is the chairman of the council’s ordinance committee, which is currently considering a change to city code which would decrease the minimum spacing between individual trailers from 20 feet to 10 feet. That spacing requirement would include any accessory structures on a property.

"The law is the law," Lang said after city planning and zoning administrator Craig Hoium said five of the nine trailers were still without permits, although the permits had been applied for. "If those trailers are sitting there without permission, we need to enforce the law."

In response to the allegations that the city was lax in enforcing city ordinances at Oakland Park, Hoium said after the meeting that the city was addressing the pertinent violations. Those include spacing violations – the reason the issue is before the ordinance committee – as well as the lack of a proper storm shelter, an issue also regulated by the state health department.

"We met with the ordinance committee, as well as with the owners’ attorney and city engineer Jon Erichson," Hoium said. "The residents have some justifiable concerns and complaints, but some of those issues have been there a long time, since Nelson’s Wheel Estates was first opened."