Some peace of mind

The Edison Township Council did the right thing recently by introducing an ordinance that would make it harder for developers to push out mobile home park residents just so they can throw up a few more McMansions in town.

The ordinance would rezone the properties of the four mobile home parks - Edison Mobile Estates, Edison Mobile Gardens, Edison Trailer Court and Edison Terrace. The properties are currently zoned either as general business zones or residential zones.

Ownership of the sites changed hands earlier this year. That's when the problems began. The new owner, Edgewood Properties, had a chilling message for some mobile home park tenants. When the new leases went out, they came with a request for a $900 security deposit, even for residents who had lived in the parks for decades. Edgewood also tried to jack up the rents with an obscene $200 a month increase, from $335 to $595.

That didn't work. Edison's rent control ordinance, which forbids property owners from hiking rents more than 5 percent over a previous lease, stopped Jack Morris in his tracks. New leases went out, with a monthly rent of $351.75. So far, no tenants have signed the new leases.

It's an old story. Mobile home park residents are often at the mercy of whoever owns the property their homes sit on. Many live on fixed incomes, or can't afford to move to a single-family home. Some are happy where they are.

And they are easy targets for greedy land owners. Even the threat of a rent increase, like Edgewood's, could be all it takes for some residents to start looking for a new front yard.

To his credit, Mayor Jun Choi met with members of the Edison Terrace Homeowners Association back in March to listen to their concerns. The new ordinance is part of his administration's effort to curb residential overdevelopment. Who says things haven't changed since George A. Spadoro sat in the mayor's chair?

The ordinance is now in the hands of Planning Board members, who have to determine if the ordinance is consistent with the township's master plan. But even if it's not, Township Attorney Jeffrey Lehrer says a master plan amendment could be adopted.

Now it's time for Planning Board members to give the proposed ordinance their blessing and send it back to the council for final adoption. Edison's mobile home park residents deserve some peace of mind.