Mulberry Stuck With Acres of Rotting Mobile Homes After Successfully Stopping Sewage Problems

An abandoned travel trailer in Lakeside Mobile Manor, that was shut down by the City of Mulberry a year ago this month. The abandoned mobile homes are still there, and the property is still owned by Hutton House.

Ernst Peters | The Ledger
Published: Saturday, February 1, 2014 at 10:36 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, February 1, 2014 at 10:36 p.m.

MULBERRY | A year ago, Mulberry administrators lauded a legal victory that allowed them to shut down Lakeside Mobile Manor, an aging mobile home park with a leaking sewer system.

But now, the city is left with 27 acres of condemned mobile homes, most missing doors and siding, and limited money to haul them away.

"This has become a scrap yard for people who need parts for their trailers," said Bonnie Titus, the city's code enforcement officer.

"The doors must be worth a lot because they've taken a lot of those, and most of the aluminum is gone. There's not much left to these mobile homes except vinyl siding and old 2-by-4s. It's a ghost town out here, but the city doesn't have the money to finish this out."

The city has taken control of the deteriorating mobile homes through condemnation, but Hutton House LLC, a now defunct South Florida business, bought the park in 2005 and still owns the land at 1014 N. Church Ave.

The cost to haul away what's left of the estimated 30 mobile homes could run as high as $75,000, and City Manager Rick Johnson said he's unwilling to have city taxpayers foot that bill.

"We don't want to put the burden on the taxpayers to clean this place up," he said. "The city already has enough invested in this place."

Mulberry's code enforcement liens against the property total $385,000, including fines dating to 2010. That also includes as much as $50,000 in out-of-pocket costs to the city, including staff time to handle site issues and costs to maintain it since closing the park down. And there's the estimated $12,000 in legal fees the city spent taking Hutton House to court.


So Mulberry is weighing its options, and city commissioners are planning to discuss those at a meeting Tuesday.

"We need to do something," Johnson said. "We've been dealing with this place long enough."

Commissioner Collins Smith said he'd like to see the city take ownership of the land and convert it into a recreation area, but Commissioner Jim Splaine said he's not so sure the city should take possession of it.

"I want to see it cleaned up, one way or the other," Splaine said. "It's a big eyesore, but I don't want the city to be liable for cleaning it up. We've spent enough on that park already. And what are we going to do with it if we take possession of it? The city isn't in the real estate business. There's a time when you have to cut your losses and walk away."

About 40 mobile homes remained when a circuit judge granted the city's request last January to shut down the sewer system, which was leaking raw sewage both under and atop the ground.

That action effectively closed the park, since state health regulations mandated its closure if there was no sewer system. Residents in about 30 homes moved out by May, some taking their residences out and others just shutting the doors and walking away.

The city's code-enforcement magistrate condemned all but one of the remaining mobile homes in July, leaving the city to wrestle with the next step.


At one time in its nearly 50-year history, Lakeside Mobile Manor boasted 65 shiny mobile homes on manicured lots nestled along the meandering south shore of a phosphate pit-turned-lake on Mulberry's north side. But when Hutton House bought the park nine years ago for $1.02 million, problems set in.

The park's owners began battling the aging sewer system, which frequently overflowed into yards of residents along N.W. 10th Drive south of the park. Titus said the owners made interim repairs but not the kind of overhaul the system needed.

By 2010, the city had reached its breaking point, Titus said, and began citing the park's owner for failing to maintain the sewer lines, which tie into the city's wastewater system. That connection exposed the city's system to problems Mulberry administrators weren't willing to take on, and a legal battle ensued.

Nearly four years later, the pipes lay dormant, about 30 mobile homes stand abandoned, the state has dissolved the Hutton House LLC business, and the company's owners are facing a lawsuit from the bank on their $700,000 mortgage.

And the city is trying to manage the fallout.

Johnson said the city can tear the mobile homes down but not sell them.

"We have the authority to bulldoze them, but not to get involved in a sale," he said.


City Attorney Frank Comparetto said there may be an alternative that could help the city recoup at least some of its investment.

"The city has the option to approach the bank that holds the mortgage on the land, and ask them to remove the property as security for their (promissory) note," he said.

If the bank agreed to do that, Hutton House owners still would owe the bank for the mortgage, but that debt wouldn't be tied to the land, Comparetto said.

The bank, City National Bank, already is suing the owners for about $700,000 on the promissory note, but that doesn't include the 27-acre site, which means the bank is seeking a judgment against Hutton House only on the debt and isn't asking the court for title to the land, according to court records.

Deborah Vrana, spokeswoman for City National Bank in Los Angeles, said the bank declined comment on the issue.

If the bank would release the land as security, Comparetto said, the city could foreclose on the land based on the $385,000 in code enforcement liens owed to the city. Then the city could develop the site or sell it.

According to the Polk County Property Appraiser's records, the land is worth $442,127, including the 20 mobile homes Hutton House owns and for which the company was paying taxes.

But that leads to another hitch. According to the county's tax records, Hutton House is $54,016 behind on its property taxes in Polk County, not including the $15,195 that's owed for the current tax year.

If the city takes the land through a code-enforcement foreclosure, Comparetto said, the city becomes responsible for that tax debt. Some of that, totaling $17,882, would come back to the city in municipal property taxes, but the city would have to pay out the remaining $51,332.

"All of this has become an economic issue for the city at this point," he said. "The next move is up to the commission."



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