Old Orchard Beach voters will be asked whether or not to approve a rent stabilization ordinance this election. Eloise Goldsmith photo

Old Orchard Beach residents will vote in November on a proposed mobile home park rent control ordinance.

If approved by voters, the ordinance would ensure lot rents for mobile home park residents could only increase by 5% yearly, except under special circumstances.

Residents in Old Orchard Beach’s mobile home parks typically own their home and rent the lot the home sits on.

In February of this year, residents of Atlantic Village and Old Orchard Village learned that the longtime owner — Seagate Limited Partnership — was selling the properties to California-based company Follett USA.

In an effort to keep rent costs low, residents attempted to purchase the parks. When this effort did not work, they began to explore rent control.

Val Philbrick, a resident of Old Orchard Village, has been working tirelessly to push a petition to create the ordinance forward. In September, the petition finally gained enough signatures to go before the Town Council.

The Council had two choices in September – they could either accept the ordinance on the spot, or send it to referendum in November.

Council Chair Shawn O’Neill said that since the ordinance would affect only a small segment of the town, it should be voted on by residents.

“Our hands are tied,” he said.

Councilor Kenneth Blow warned mobile home park residents about potential hidden costs from the ordinance, including an annual rent stabilization fee from the town to cover municipal staff time to enforce the ordinance.

“I’m just worried about a knee-jerk reaction,” Blow said.

At a Sept. 3 Town Council meeting, the town proposed a $20 to $25 monthly fee on the residents of each mobile home village in town to pay for administration of the ordinance.

As outlined by Town Manager Diana Asanza, the town plans to hire two full-time employees, an administrator and an arbitrator, at a sum of $100,000 to $200,000 per year to administer the ordinance.

But “nothing is set in stone,” Asanza said at a public hearing, as a fee is not included in the referendum question.

Residents of the mobile home parks, Philbrick said, are wondering why the town would need two full-time employees to administer an ordinance that could be “easily contracted out at a lower rate”.

“A monthly fee levied on a subset of citizens, the residents of mobile home parks, to administer an ordinance would add to the financial burden of retired senior citizens living on fixed incomes,” Philbrick said. “Some are barely getting by.”

Follett USA, the owner of two Old Orchard Beach mobile home parks, is lobbying against the ballot question.

Last week, the company held a meeting in town to urge voters to reject the rent cap for financial reasons.

The company said passage of the referendum would “drastically raise the cost of affordable housing in Old Orchard Beach.”