The San Lazaro Mobile Home Park borders undeveloped land and is home to about 800 residents. Damien Teague has lived there for 18 years.
Get top headlines and KUNC reporting directly to your mailbox each week when you subscribe to In The NoCo.
“This morning, I was sitting on my porch watching a flock of turkeys and a herd of deer in the early morning sun,” Teague said. “It’s a wholesome place to live.”
The community serves as affordable housing for a range of residents, including students, workers and retirees. The property is currently owned by an out-of-state company, but earlier this spring, residents learned it was going on the market. State law requires residents to be notified when an owner intends to sell a mobile home park and gives them the opportunity to buy it themselves.
For Teague and others, the future of their community is uncertain.
“The new owner could raise the rent,” Teague said. “The property could be redeveloped. It’s completely unknown what would happen if it goes to another party.”
Teague helped form a steering committee to organize his neighbors and raise funds ahead of the July deadline. Doing so would give the community more control over issues such as rent levels and the park’s ongoing drinking water problems.
If residents of San Lazaro Mobile Home Park are able to purchase the property, it would become the fourth resident-owned mobile home park in Boulder County, according to the Boulder Reporting Lab.
Residents have until mid-July to raise funds. Teague said the asking price is $42.5 million.
