As expected, a mobile home park request to wave a city ordinance prohibiting certain RV housing wasn’t approved Monday.

Tuesday, August 10, 1999

As expected, a mobile home park request to wave a city ordinance prohibiting certain RV housing wasn’t approved Monday.

The ordinance doesn’t allow RV parking in a manufactured home park; owners of the Countryside Hills Mobile Home Park asked the City Council to wave the ordiance so they could provide lots for as many as 45 pipeline workers and their families in need of housing while a pipeline is constructed through the county.

Owned by Alliance Pipeline, the pipeline will extend from Canada to Illinois and cross seven Minnesota counties. Construction in Freeborn County is expected to take two seasons.

During that time, several hundred people are expected to set up temporary homes in the Albert Lea area. Some will enroll their children in local schools while they’re here through December, and when they return in the spring.

&uot;I’m looking at Albert Lea as a whole and countryside second,&uot; said Richard Greer, one of several representatives of the park who attended Monday’s City Council Meeting. &uot;It will generate money for us. It will generate a lot of money for Albert Lea.&uot;

But if the council waved the ordinance and that action was challenged, the city could face a lawsuit it couldn’t possibly win.

&uot;All it would take is for one person to get an attorney and we would have to move them out again,&uot; City Manager Paul Sparks said. &uot;If we want to accommodate this, we have to find common ground.&uot;

&uot;We can’t break our own laws,&uot; added Councilor Ron Sorenson.

Instead, Sorenson introduced a motion to send the issue to the planning commission for review on Thursday.

If the commission recommends amending the ordinance to allow a one-time exception, the council would then consider the amendment at its next meeting in two weeks.

While the council could then approve the amendment, it wouldn’t take affect until 30 days after that approval.

&uot;What are 45 pipeline families supposed to do for housing?&uot; asked J.D. Hoyt, one of the affected pipeline families. &uot;I’m one of those 45 and within one or two weeks, 150 more pipeliners will be here. The city of Albert Lea knew we were coming to town. These are our permanent dwellings.&uot;

Albert Lea Mayor Marv Wangen said the council didn’t know there was a problem until about two weeks ago.

He said if the RVs – some worth as much as $100,000 – meet size requirements of eight by 40 feet or 350 squre feet, those RVs can then be parked at the park.

He told the pipeline workers in attendance to call the city’s inspection department to determine if their RVs meet the minimum standard.

&uot;We don’t have an answer,&uot; Wangen said. &uot;If it’s something of such magnitude, we should have had advance warning.&uot;

&uot;We have to live by our laws,&uot; added Councilor David McPherson.