The owners of the Columbia Mobile Home Park are asking Tuolumne County Supervisors to allow them to raise the rents of tenants who are on rent control. The owners of the park Parrots Ferry Road want to raise rents by about $17 per space. The vast majority of tenants there are on rent control.

At Tuesday´s board meeting, Wes Pearson spoke on behalf of residents who don´t want to pay more. “There are hundreds of low income people living here in the mobile home parks in this county,” Pearson read from a prepared statement, “…it is taken so lightly, the amount of money that is demanded for a small dirt space.”

Supervisor Dick Pland seemed to resent the suggestion that this decision would be taken lightly by the county. “You may not always agree with what decisions we make, but I think we have to be even-handed and take all of the factors into consideration,” he said.

The board decided to put off making a decision, because the county building department has not done a recent enough inspection of the park, which is required under the county´s rent control ordinance. Supervisors could make a decision in June.