By Anita Weier
Northside News
In coming months, up to 80 new homes will be added to the mobile home park on Packers Avenue. There are currently 411 mobile homes in the Oak Park Terrace complex at 3901 Packers Ave.
The addition was approved by the Madison Plan Commission two years ago, but requirements first had to be met for plans for stormwater management, tree planting and numerous other categories.
“We will have rentals or sales available,” said Yolanda Rodriguez, community manager of the Oak Park complex. She works for Lakeshore Management, and her office is located at 236 Bunting Lane. People cannot buy the land, she stressed.
Comments submitted to the Plan Commission in the past included a statement from April Laakkonen of Starling Lane, who said her main concern was the safety of children who live in the mobile home park because they have limited play area and consequently play in the streets. She also worried that the homes are very close together. “The legal space to place the homes in at minimum of six feet apart. I have witnessed a trailer burn to the ground in minutes,” Laakkonen said.
The mobile home park has 124 surface stalls but no garages.
Because housing costs are high in Madison, mobile homes may be more accessible for many people. “We provide affordable housing,” said Sales and Leasing Specialist Sara Druckrey, who works for Lakeshore Properties.
Rental would cost $840 per month for a lot. People can also buy or rent a mobile home. A monthly rent could cost about $2,040 for a two-bedroom, including the lot rental. The owners accept Section 8 housing payments, Druckrey said. Buying a mobile home through Oak Park could cost $65,000 for a two-bedroom home or $97,000 for a three-bedroom with two baths and a patio, said Druckrey.
Work is currently being done on water and utilities in the mobile home park, so it is not certain when new properties will be available.
The mobile home park is owned by Oak Park MHC LLC in Austin, Texas, which has an office in Skokie, Illinois, where the management and sales companies are based. The Texas firm acquired the mobile home park in 2003 from a company that previously obtained it from the Pauline Raemisch estate.
