Residents to buy Mountain View Mobile Home Park in Lafayette with help from Boulder County
LAFAYETTE — The residents of the Mountain View Mobile Home Park in Lafayette have formed a cooperative and plan to buy the community, a move that supporters say is a boost for housing affordability in Boulder County.
The La Luna Cooperative was formed last fall when the 34-unit, roughly six-acre community at East Cleveland Street and South Burlington Avenue was listed for sale. Terms of the cooperative’s offer to the park’s existing ownership group have not been disclosed.
A 2020 law, HB20-1201, gives mobile-home park residents the right to purchase their homes and property if the owner plans to sell or redevelop the site. The intent is to preserve affordable housing types.
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“The cooperative has obtained most of its financing for the acquisition of the property in the form of grants and low-interest loans,” including a forgivable $1.05 million loan from Boulder County, the county said in a news release.
“We are thrilled to announce this funding source to support more affordable housing options in Boulder County,” Boulder County Commissioner Claire Levy said in the release. “Boulder County values the role of mobile home park communities in maintaining affordable housing opportunities, and we know it takes a lot of cooperation from mobile home park residents to organize and move toward housing stability.”
In addition to the county’s loan, La Luna has access to an interest-free loan of $495,000 from the city.
“The goal of this funding is to help families stay in their houses and keep rents stable,” Levy said in a statement.
Last year Boulder County officials recommended investing $5 million in affordability programs at mobile home parks.
“These communities can feel more solid and prosper with the appropriate collaborations and partnerships,” Boulder County’s mobile-home park project manager Francisco Padilla said in a statement.
In August 2022, residents of the Parklane Mobile Home Park in Fort Collins bought the 68-unit community with similar public assistance in the form of interest-free and forgivable loans.