By Juliette Rihl, Taylor Seely | Arizona Republic
At the end of an emotional, six-hour marathon meeting on Wednesday, Phoenix City Council members shot down three of four proposals intended to protect residents facing eviction at three mobile home parks, ultimately siding with city staff who said the actions would put the city in legal and financial jeopardy.
The council opted not to approve a zoning change or an 18-month development moratorium for the three parks, two actions that residents and community activists had pleaded with council members to take. It also did not move forward with pursuing a study of mobile home parks throughout the city.
Instead, the council allocated $2.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds toward helping the affected families find new housing and asked city staff to research a dozen solutions that staff first proposed in November.
“Those of us who make laws should follow them, even when we believe they were incorrectly made,” said Mayor Kate Gallego in reference to Proposition 207, the state law that would likely have rendered the zoning change illegal. “And it’s just misleading for us to tell people that we can ignore the law.”
