Residents of a shuttered mobile home park in Blue Island said they’ve found a new owner for their property in order to keep their homes, but city officials said the property is still not zoned for residential purposes.
Attorneys previously agreed in a July meeting the property was unrealistic to save, because infrastructure issues and building code violations would require significant investment.
Despite these barriers, Canaan Van Williams, managing partner at Proactive Sustainable Bonds, said his investment group finalized a contract of terms to buy the property by the second week of December following negotiations with the mobile home property owners, Forest View Mobile Home Park Inc., which is managed by Mer-Car Corporation.
The terms, Van Williams said, include a cash purchase of the property that’s below market price. The terms would also require the Forest View management company to be responsible for outstanding water bills and other payments to the city. Proactive Sustainable Bonds would take on the code violations and clean up the property, he said.
Proactive investment group is a fixed-income investment, developed by ProActive Realty Group, that funds affordable and energy efficient real estate projects. Van Williams said he works out of an office in Harvey, not far from Blue Island.
Van Williams said the agreed upon sale price between the two companies is reasonable and allows his investment group to keep rents where they area, make improvements and even bring in new units.
Van Williams said the next step is for the two companies to write up a agreement.
The catch, however, is that the property is still zoned as industrial, according to city officials.
These zoning issues dated back to 1971, City Administrator Thomas Wogan said, when the property was originally developed as a mobile home park. While the Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval of a special-use permit, he said, there is no record that the City Council ever officially granted it.
Wogan said the subsequent owner received a special-use permit in 1980, but there is no record of the current owner, Mer-Car Corporation, ever applying for or receiving a special-use permit.
“Special-use permits do not transfer with the sale of a property, meaning the current operation lacks the required zoning,” Wogan said.
Wogan said on Oct. 23 that while the residents’ attorney contacted the city attorney seeking a meeting, no meeting is scheduled and no formal communications have happened.
Joe Cervantes, a resident who has led the charge to find support for the residents, said residents wanted to come up with a viable solution for saving the property before approaching the city.
“The city has the power to change the zoning, but the city has to feel comfortable and safe that this is not going to be the same as it was before,” Cervantes said. “They need reinsurances, and they need to feel like they’re involved and going to get their pay from the previous owners.”
Residents, along with Van Williams, said they want to present the sale contract and proposal to rezone the property at a City Council meeting in the next few weeks. Cervantes and Van Williams said they reached out to Ald. Dexter Johnson and Ald. Joshua Roll on Friday in hopes of planning a meeting to discuss their request.
Van Williams also said he is ready to take on the property and plans to add more lighting to reduce crime. He also said he would add storm water management systems, landscaping and other infrastructure improvement. He also promised rules about dogs chained up outside, any sort of domestic violence and other things that could be a danger to the community.
Van Williams said he plans to remove dilapidated units and is already working with residents to identify and remove nonresidents.
Cervantes said residents were excited about the new possible owner, especially since Van Williams said he would allow them to continue organizing and having a voice in decisions about the property.
“The enthusiasm was really, they were all excited about it,” Cervantes said. “They’re excited about second chances, and they’re excited about keeping their kids there.”
“We believed the thought of selling the park was a 1% chance, but with the help of so many people, we’re at this point, at this crossroads, where I believe our steps going forward will be to get the city on board,” Cervantes said.
Van Williams said he first heard of the Forest View mobile home park from a connection at Resident Owned Communities USA, a national nonprofit organization that helps manufactured home residents buy the land their homes are on, when attending a manufactured housing conference and owners event.
About 72 hours later, he said, he met Cervantes on the property and by the end of October, he said he had a finalized contract terms with the property management company.
Before meeting Van Williams, residents were working on a relocation agreement, which would contain an agreement for the timeframe for relocation.
The city, property attorneys and residents’ attorney met in July to discuss the agreement as part of a larger legal battle between the city and Forest View Mobile Home Park Inc., Mer-Car Corporation, Chicago Title Land Trust and Steven Dukatt, president of Mer-Car Corporation.
As part of this legal battle, Blue Island officials sent a letter to the Forest View property owners demanding the owners to “cease and desist” and evict residents in late July, mainly due to unsafe conditions, calling the property a “clear and present danger to the public health, safety and general welfare of the City” as well as those living on and near the premises.
The property managers owe the city almost $4 million in unpaid water bills, Wogan said. In 2023, the city came close to shutting off the mobile home park’s water service after the landlord did not pay $850,000 in water bills. Residents protested and received a temporary restraining order to keep the water on.
The case between the city and property management, overseen by Cook County Judge Jonathan Clark Green, is scheduled in court at 10 a.m. on Nov. 12.
awright@chicagotribune.com
