From: Subject: Chicago Tribune news: Plan forces trailer park residents out Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 14:12:26 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0007_01C59447.8BE72F60"; type="text/html" X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C59447.8BE72F60 Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: file://C:\Articles\xxxxxPlan_Forces_Trailer_Park_Residents_Out.htm Chicago Tribune news: Plan = forces trailer park residents out

Plan forces trailer park residents out

By Kayce T. Ataiyero, Tribune = staff reporter.=20 Freelance reporter Tim Kane contributed to this report

July 29,=20 2005

Home for Fabiola Esquivel and her mother, Maria, is a = trailer in a=20 mobile home park on Harvard's south side.

The trailer is theirs, = thanks=20 to a $22,000 loan taken out by Maria Esquivel, who repays it from her = wages as a=20 cook. But the lot belongs to Belvidere developer Carl Roppolo, who = recently=20 announced plans to convert the space to a strip mall.

Now, the = Esquivels=20 and the other residents of the 56 trailers at the park find themselves = with=20 nowhere to place their homes.

The residents, all but three of = whom own=20 their trailers, have been given a year to move. For the 40 or so people = who=20 attended a community meeting Wednesday, the question is: = Where?

"Most of=20 the families that live here, [the mobile home] is all they have. ... = They work=20 seven to 10 years to buy a mobile home, and you are going to take it = away," said=20 Fabiola Esquivel, 19. "They are not going to have any place to = go."

As=20 the residents explored options at the meeting, convened by Harvard's = Human=20 Relations Commission, the City Council was giving Roppolo's plan the=20 go-ahead.

The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to = allow=20 Roppolo to put a strip mall on the site of the 4.7-acre trailer park = along U.S.=20 Highway 14, northwest of Airport Road.

The trailer park abuts 8.8 = acres=20 of vacant land also owned by Roppolo that was recently designated a=20 tax-increment financing district and part of the strip-mall = plan.

After=20 the council meeting, Village Attorney David McArdle said the trailer = park sits=20 in the city's southern corridor, which is a prime spot for=20 development.

"I feel sorry for the people that live there," = McArdle said.=20 "The trailers all sit on a blacktop. They string up their own electrical = wiring=20 from trailer to trailer. There are fires there regularly, and you can't = fit a=20 fire truck through the place. They would be better off living someplace=20 else."

The Human Relations Commission will hold another meeting = at 7 p.m.=20 Thursday at City Hall where residents can learn about options for buying = a=20 home.

Commission Chairwoman Janie Galarza said Roppolo first told = the=20 residents he was going to fix up the park. But later, the developer went = to the=20 city with plans for the strip mall without notifying his tenants, she=20 said.

Roppolo could not be reached for comment.

"There is = another=20 lot, the north side lot, but there is one vacant spot, that's it," = Galarza said,=20 referring to a trailer park on Harvard's north side. "They don't know = where they=20 are going to live now."

Terry Nelson, president of the Mobile = Home Owners=20 Association of Illinois, said residents are often left in the lurch when = their=20 trailer parks are sold for other uses.

Mobile homes belie their = names in=20 that most can't realistically be moved, she said. And finding somewhere = to put=20 them can be equally challenging.

"When a landlord has a lot open, = they=20 want to set up a new home and want to make the commission on the new = home," she=20 said. "And Illinois is a state that has restrictive zoning, meaning most = counties will not let you buy land for a mobile home."

Nelson = said the=20 residents probably will have to leave their trailers at the park, where = they=20 will be demolished.

That means, Galarza said, most of the = residents will=20 still pay the loan on their homes long after they are=20 gone.

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kataiyero@tribune.com

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