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For Sherri and Bryan Phillips, the thought of being forced out of their mobile home in Westland Trailer Park wouldn't seem so scary if other options existed.

For them, moving out of Westland could mean moving out of Steamboat Springs and even Routt County.

The Phillipses' mobile home, perched along the Yampa River in downtown Steamboat, is one of 39 homes that could be displaced if the city approves the development of 50 townhomes and 7,000 feet of commercial space between Lincoln Avenue and Yampa Street and Third and Fourth streets.

On Tuesday, the City Council heard pre-application plans for the redevelopment project.

When they bought their trailer in 1999, the Phillipses knew the land it sat on was for sale. Since last summer, they knew the land was under contract for redevelopment.

What came as a surprise was the difficulty involved in moving from a mobile home to a house where they could own the land underneath it.

Like many of the other Westland homes, the Phillipses' 1973 trailer is too old to move into other parks in Routt County. The closest place it could be moved is in Wyoming.

The Phillipses never intended their mobile home to be long-term housing. It was a stepping stone to a house with land.

The couple paid off the trailer, maintained good credit, bought land in Stagecoach and diligently saved for the next move up in the housing chain. But the jump was too large.

With redevelopment looming and no place to move the mobile home, the Phillipses stand to lose the equity they thought they were building when they purchased a mobile home.

"We thought we took every step correctly, and it's not going to work out," Sherri Phillips said.

The problem extends far beyond the Phillipses' home and the strife between the developers and Westland Trailer Park residents. It is a dilemma that could get played out again and again and impact hundreds of families in Steamboat, Councilwoman Susan Dellinger said.

And it's not just the mobile-home owners in Steamboat who are feeling the crunch of increasing housing cost, said Nancy Nagler, who worked on affordable housing issues in Minneapolis in the government and nonprofit sector and who recently moved to Steamboat.

"What is happening in Steamboat in terms of a housing crisis is being mirrored across the country," Nagler said.

Best efforts

In Routt County, mobile homes make up 11 percent of all owner-occupied housing and 11 percent of rental-occupied housing in Routt County, according to a 2003 study funded by the city and Routt County. Close to 900 mobile homes are occupied by Routt County residents.

"It is pretty clear mobile-home parks provide an opportunity for affordable housing in Steamboat Springs," Kathi Meyer said.

Meyer, who is treasurer of the Regional Affordable Living Foundation and chairwoman of the Steamboat Springs Planning Commission, said the real challenge with mobile homes within city limits is that the people who live in them don't own the land.

"Tenants are faced with two really scary things: They can get a letter saying the park is being redeveloped or get a letter increasing the rent," Meyer said. "Both of these situations are negative."

The situation at Westland Trailer Park is not unfamiliar to Meyer or the city. It was played out at Trailer Haven in 2002, when a group of 11 residents had to leave a coveted spot at the corner of Third and Oak streets. The land was redeveloped into tennis courts for the Steamboat Springs Health and Recreation Center.

Sparked by the plight of those residents, the council passed an ordinance requiring owners of mobile-home parks to present a conversion impact report to the city if they intend to redevelop the land. Owners also need to get a conditional-use permit to change the property's use.

At the time, the City Council decided not to require park owners to find or pay for new land for the displaced mobile-home owners. Instead, the ordinance asks developers to make their "best efforts" when mobile-home owners are being displaced. Developers are asked to give mobile home owners a list of available sites within a 50-mile radius.

Some question whether the ordinance falls short in protecting park residents and needs to be reworked.

Westland resident Joe Frisch would like an ordinance that allows trailer owners a chance to buy the land, requires relocation packages or gives full compensation for those homes that cannot be moved off their lots.

In other states and communities, Meyer said laws require developers to offer relocation packages to the homeowners they are displacing, but she is unaware of any law that would require the developer to pay the full assessed value of the mobile home.

Even if that was a requirement, Nagler said it would do little in getting homeowners to where they needed to be to buy a house.

From Fish Creek to Sleepy Bear, five mobile home parks sit along what was once undesirable land: the flood-prone banks of the Yampa River, rattled regularly by the close proximity of passing trains. As undeveloped land became scarce within the city limits, demand for the riverfront property has grown.

As development increased in the 1990s, the number of trailer parks in Steamboat remained unchanged. Vacancies in trailer parks are rare, and the last time the city saw a plan to build or expand a new park was in 1997, Meyer said. That plan didn't materialize.

"I think private developers were able to do larger projects with great margins with greater profit potential. That is why they have been focused on the high-end market," Meyer said. "Which is why there is a need -- and that need isn't being met."

A stepping stone

With the median price of a mobile home in Routt County at $37,500, owning a mobile home looks like a good -- and for some, the only -- option for those working two or three jobs at or near minimum wage. It's a manageable number compared with the $325,000 median sale price of a single-family home and the $199,000 median sale price of a condominium.

"It is an opportunity to have something that is yours," Nagler said.

Westland residents use the words "stepping stone" to describe why they decided to buy mobile homes.

The Phillipses said it was their only option. A house was too expensive, rent was cheaper in a mobile-home park than a condo and they saw it as a way to build equity.

Like many of his neighbors, Bryan Phillips works two jobs: one as a carpet installer and the other as a bartender at Steamboat Smokehouse. Sherri is a full-time secretary at TIC.

The Phillipses describe Westland Trailer Park as a place where everybody knows everybody. They know when their neighbors come home from work, they watch out for one anothers' children and they drop in on each other's summer barbecues. Their 10-year-old daughter fishes off their deck.

Neighbor Christina Allevato is one of the lucky ones; her trailer is new enough to move to another park, but she said the only lots available are in Oak Creek and Craig.

Allevato said a mobile home made perfect sense for her. She has a million-dollar view of the river and a yard she wouldn't get with a condo. She had hoped the $35,000 she put into the trailer could someday turn into equity on a home.

Allevato, a housekeeper, called the residents at Westland the heart of the community.

"We are the ones that are keeping the ball rolling," Allevato said. "Who will do the dishes, wait the tables? We are the heart and soul of what Steamboat is all about."

Meyer and Nagler agree that housing such as Westland Trailer Park is important to the health of the community.

Meyer thinks that Steamboat is -- and should remain -- an inclusive community but fears increasing housing costs could turn Steamboat into an enclave for the rich.

If residents are forced to leave town, the community loses important voices, Nagler said. If the homeowners stay and spend more of their tight income on housing and less on other basic needs, other social costs could arise.

"You are likely to see an increased number of people going to LIFT-UP, who can't afford food," Nagler said. "An increased number of people end up in the emergency room that can't afford health insurance. All these things are ramifications."

A piece of the pie

Dream Island mobile-home owner Jeanette Eastman is keeping a sharp eye on the city's handling of Westland Trailer Park. She sees the 70-home park on the west end of town as prime real estate -- and next in line for redevelopment.

"Everybody who lives in a trailer park in this area is concerned about what may or may not happen," Eastman said.

For Eastman, the perfect solution would be the ability to own the land underneath the mobile home.

Even a small piece of land is valuable, Eastman said. Owning a lot could lead to more pride in ownership and more improvements made to the property.

Owning the land also means mobile-home owners go from financing a depreciating asset to an appreciating one, Meyer said. It also makes homeowners eligible for longer term loans and lower interest rates.

The solution, Meyer said, is creating mobile home parks where homeowners also can be lot owners or subdividing existing lots so homeowners can own the land underneath their homes.

"We need to provide the opportunity for all segments of the population to obtain housing that they deem affordable, not what we deem affordable," Meyer said.

But she admits that there are barriers to the solution. The City Development Code's regulations on sidewalks and setbacks are not friendly to the small-lot subdivision that a mobile-home park must go through to transfer to individual ownership, Meyer said.

Meyer, Eastman and the residents of Westland all point to Steamboat's one shining success story in mobile home parks: Hilltop. In 2003, the city approved a small-lot subdivision that allowed 17 Hilltop residents to buy their lots.

Frisch said the residents at Westland Trailer Park have been in contact with those who worked on the Hilltop contract. In 2000, Westland homeowners looked into buying their own lots, but the deal fell through when the asking price was far more than the appraised value, he said.

Part of Hilltop's success was the homeowners' immediate initiative to offer a contract as soon as the land went on the market, but Meyer said the conversion came with bumps.

Hilltop homeowners had to promise the city new landscaping to meet the code, Meyer said, and they also had the added cost of surveys, legal expenses and planning fees.

"We shouldn't require retroactive upgrades in order to just create lot lines," Meyer said.

The Steamboat Springs Area Community Plan Update includes a recommendation to simplify and make more flexible the process for conversions of mobile-home parks.

Sherri Phillips thinks anything the city could do would help.

"They just need to do something. I don't care what they do, they just need to do something," she said.