The Salt Lake County Council has voted for a six-month moratorium on changing mobile home land use, but the action does nothing to help a group of residents about to be displaced.

Owners of Park Hill Mobile Home Estates in Millcreek, who want to build condominiums where two dozen mobile homes now sit, have told homeowners to move out. The action has prompted protests by homeowners who say their homes are too old to move and that they don't have money to cover what could be considerable moving expenses for many of them.

For the past two weeks the County Council has been trying to find a way to balance the owners' right to use the property as they see fit as well as establish policy to counter the disappearance of affordable housing.

Finding its options limited and difficult, the county decided to put things on hold for a while.

"There are so few mobile home parks left in the unincorporated county (nine) that we need to freeze things," Councilman Russell Skousen said.

Nevertheless, the moratorium only applies to issuance of permits for new housing, deputy district attorney Tom Christensen said. It won't stop Park Hill owners from kicking out the tenants and reducing the site to bare ground in anticipation of a permit.

In addition, any new law put in place during the moratorium would not affect Park Hill developers, since they applied for their permit before it was put in place.

Co-owner/developer Mike Miller said the council is unfairly targeting him as well as unnecessarily complicating things.

"We're willing to work with (residents)," he said. "We don't want to play hardball . . . We have been working this out on our own."

Miller did not take kindly to the fact that he was first informed of the vote by a reporter rather than someone from the county.

"The bottom line is the trailer park won't be a trailer park the minute we can change it," he said. "We're not going to change our minds. We're going to move forward."

As is usual in such cases, Miller and his partner have been cast in the role of villains, cold-heartedly shoving out residents. County officials point out that the developers have offered mitigation: $1,500 in moving expense assistance (residents maintain that is far below what is needed), an indefinite extension of the original Sept. 1 deadline, a $10,000 discount on condominium purchase for current residents and possible additional action.

During the moratorium the council will look into what it can do legally to stop or slow redevelopment of mobile home parks (though Christensen notes that "their remedies are limited") and whether it can offer cash assistance to residents who are forced out.

Sandy recently helped a group of mobile home residents in a similar situation with $5,000 each.

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