Evicted

Greenwood Court trailer owners told to move

Many Greenwood Trailer Court tenants knew it was only a matter of time before their mobile-home park in Whitefish would be nudged aside for bigger and better development on the 12-acre plot that has both Whitefish River and U.S. 93 frontage.

But when the eviction notices were sent out two weeks ago, it was still a blow for the 55 trailer owners.

"It makes me sick," said Sally Porcarelli, who has lived there for 32 years. "We knew it was coming eventually, but when it happens, it's pretty darn scary. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Ida Knutson is in the same boat. She has lived in the mobile-home park for 28 years.

"I don't know what to do, and what to do with the trailer. No one wants them."

Knutson is looking at apartments in Whitefish, but doesn't know how to dispose of her 1977 mobile home that's old but in good shape. Most area mobile-home courts won't take trailers older than 1985 models.

Greenwood residents have until mid-August to find new homes and move their trailers out of the court that has been nestled among pine trees for 60 years. Dennis Rasmussen has owned the Whitefish court for 40 years, but now plans to sell the property.

"We're reorganizing the corporation and downsizing," Rasmussen said. "There comes a time when your health isn't all that good and you need to restructure."

He also owns Greenwood Assisted Living Center and the Greenwood Mobile Home Park in Kalispell; he's keeping those facilities.

Operating a trailer park is "a real challenge," Rasmussen said. Property-tax and insurance costs continue to rise, and maintaining the park's infrastructure is a continuous job. More than once, trailers whose tenants were behind on their lot rent have been sneaked out of town before he could catch up with them.

"I've had to regulate pullers [truckers] to clear it with me first before they take a trailer out of there," he said.

RASMUSSEN SAID he has several prospective buyers for the site.

It's prime Whitefish real estate, with close to 700 feet of highway frontage and 400 feet along the Whitefish River. He had hoped to sell the trailer court to North Valley Hospital four years ago, but hospital officials instead decided to build a new campus south of Whitefish.

Rasmussen contemplated buying the adjacent hospital property to give him a bigger piece of land to offer developers, but he didn't want to deal with the asbestos removal that will be necessary to raze the hospital.

Hospital administrator Craig Aasved said there is a potential buyer for the hospital and he hopes to have the details worked out by mid-March.

"Nothing's forever. Land use is changing all the time," Rasmussen said. "A lot of people don't like it, but the truth is, the highest and best use for this property is not a trailer park."

Greenwood Trailer Court has been in Whitefish so long that the zoning on the river end of the court is still agricultural. The front half of the property is zoned commercial. Even though it's now sandwiched between the hospital and Mountain Mall, the area was fairly rural when the trailer court was built.

As the city drafts its growth policy this year, the agricultural zoning on that property is bound to change, City Manager Gary Marks said.

"It will probably be some sort of commercial use," he said. "The highest and best use for street frontage is for commercial use."

While Rasmussen said city officials have "hinted" that the trailer court is a blight on the resort community, Marks said he's not aware of any citations or action taken against the trailer court in that regard.

THE WHITEFISH HOUSING Authority stands ready to be a resource for the low-income residents who will be displaced from Greenwood. Director SueAnn Grogan has made a list of area mobile-home parks and their availability of lots, and she is working to find other housing options.

"People have been stopping me everywhere," Grogan said. "We'll survey [the trailer-court residents]. We know there are disabled people, elderly residents. It's a big worry."

Mountain View Manor, the senior housing complex in Whitefish managed by the housing authority, has already taken in three Greenwood residents who anticipated the trailer court's demise and moved before the eviction notices were served. Grogan said she's vacating her office at Mountain View to convert that space back into the apartment it originally was. The housing authority offices will relocate to the Abell Agency.

Grogan said the housing authority had made several offers to buy the Greenwood site to preserve low-income housing.

"We were turned down and the price raised every time," she said.

WITH LAND prices spiraling upward throughout the Flathead Valley, it doesn't bode well for the development of new mobile-home parks, said Robert Scott, a salesman at Patty Seaman Homes in Kalispell.

"As the Flathead expands and costs go up, more and more [parks] will be shut down, I would expect," he said. "When they can get $80,000 an acre, when 10 years ago they got $8,000 an acre," the highest-and-best-use principle is pervasive throughout the valley.

It will be difficult for Greenwood Trailer Court residents to sell or dispose of their mobile homes because most of them are older models that have little if any marketable value.

"That's hard to say to anyone that their home may not have any value," Scott said. "The problem is, we have no place to place them."

Patty Seaman is offering a discount to move Greenwood mobile homes, "but we don't know where to move them to," he said.

The firm charges $3,500 to move and set up a single-wide home within a 50-mile radius.

Covenants in many subdivisions forbid manufactured homes. Four years ago, the Whitefish City Council decided that mobile-home parks would no longer be allowed with a conditional-use permit. Class A mobile homes, those built after 1975 with pitched roofs, are still allowed individually on a permanent foundation, but land within city limits is scarce and expensive.

Patty Seaman homes has acreage available for customers who buy a manufactured home. But most Greenwood residents flat-out can't afford that kind of investment.

THE OUTBACK Mobile Home Settlement near Olney is one option for families who want to stay in the Whitefish school district, but there only a couple of vacancies there, said Ardes Brist, who operates the development with her husband, Ron.

"We've had lots of inquiries," Brist said. "We're waiting to see; we won't move any until spring breakup."

The Brists thought briefly about expanding in the wake of the Greenwood demise, but quickly dismissed the idea.

"We have ample land, but the costs and business we'd have to go through today, I doubt seriously that we would expand," she said.

The Brists have operated the Outback for 33 years and are also to the point where they'd like to consider retirement. They're friends with the Rasmussens and understand their dilemma.

"They agonized over the decision," Brist said. "They knew it would put a lot of swell people in a bind. They're taking a lot of static. No one wants to be the bad guy."

Brist said she believes there are opportunities for Greenwood residents to sell their mobile units and recoup at least part of their investment. There are still spots in the Canyon area and other rural areas to put older trailers, she said. She also recently heard about a man in Texas who is making portable cabins on old trailer frames.

BUT FOR NOW, there's little consolation for Greenwood residents who feel their lives pulled into a tailspin.

"I pray a lot," said Jerry Garding, who moved into his 1979 trailer there last June. "I'm on several lists [at area trailer parks]. Today, I'm not going to worry about it; maybe in a couple of months."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com