Durango City Council approved the annexation of the Westside Mobile Park and Triangle Trailer Park along U.S. Highway 160 near western city limits before an audience of park residents last month.

The action was largely procedural, but it ticked a necessary box to improve services and utilities such as water and sewer for residents of the parks.

It’s also a step toward replacing the 70-year-old mobile homes on-site with new homes built with Durango’s climate in mind for 86 families across the two parks, as described by Stefka Fanchi, CEO of Elevation Community Land Trust, which purchased the mobile home parks on behalf of residents.

The Westside-Triangle residents mobilized in 2022 to stop the acquisition of their mobile home parks by California-based real estate management company Harmony Communities, known for scooping up properties, raising rents and displacing residents in the process.

ECLT and HomesFund, a mortgage assistance nonprofit, purchased the Westside Mobile Park and Triangle Trailer Park, respectively, before HomesFund sold Triangle Trailer Park to ECLT.

Now, Westside-Triangle residents and the city are turning their attention to what is to become of the parks.

City Planner Mark Williams said the proposal is for the replacement of 74 mobile homes with up to 107 modular units built by Timber Age Systems over 11 phases of development, with construction expected to start in the summer or fall of 2025.

Elevation Community Land Trust’s housing model

Elevation Community Land Trust, a nonprofit that works across Colorado, purchased the Westside Mobile Park and Triangle Trailer Park in west Durango to preserve affordable workforce housing in the parks in perpetuity.

Mark Williams, city planner, said ECLT purchases land and retains ownership of it to let people buy homes on-site at reduced costs.

ECLT CEO Stefka Fanchi said the housing nonprofit is working with Timber Age Systems to build modular homes in Mancos that will replace the mobile homes currently occupied by residents in the mobile home parks.

She said the current mobile homes are old and not built for long-term living in Durango’s climate. Although residents currently pay only about $500 a month in lot rent, they are often paying up to $600 a month in utility bills.

ECLT bought the park land, but residents will be able to purchase the new modular homes outright. Many of the residents will be offered the homes at prices lower than 80% area median income (just under $242,000 for a two-person household) and as low as 40% area median income, Williams said.

Fanchi said ECLT charges a flat $100 monthly lot rate that is a legal formality and also covers some of the nonprofit’s administrative expenses. ECLT has no intention of ever increasing the rate.

In addition to annexing the parks into the city, City Council approved a future land map and a zoning modification from commercial to mixed use to allow residents to create community services such as a small day care or an on-site business serving the neighborhood.

Fanchi said the Westside-Triangle sites are physically constrained, and in collaboration between residents, ECLT and SEH, Inc., a planning and engineering company in Durango, the parties created a memorandum of understanding outlining alternative standards for reduced parking and landscaping and varied street width.

With Spanish to English interpretation provided by Joel Berdie, park residents told councilors the park improvements would improve their access to utilities and services and increase their quality of life.

Alejandra Chavez said she has lived in Durango for nearly 21 years and grew up in Westside Mobile Park, and the opportunity to integrate into the city of Durango is a special one.

“To have an opportunity to have an affordable home, it’s like being able to live the American dream that we’ve always dreamed,” she said.

She said the 74 families in the parks are “hard working and humble” and they contribute to the Durango community through their hard work.

Westside Mobile Park resident Mayra Gallardo said she believes big change is possible when people work together, and the mobile home park is proof and an example of “fight, community and union.”

She said her community faced worry, anguish and anxiety when Harmony Communities pursued purchase of the mobile home park. She was pregnant at the time and worried she’d be homeless when her baby was due.

The very thought was “heartbreaking,” she said.

But the community’s efforts to save the mobile home park makes her proud.

“I believe that we are all here to be worthy to have a dignified home, one with good utilities, good water, for us and our families,” she said.

cburney@durangoherald.com