Residents of the Willow Bend and Willow Hill mobile home parks in Oak Creek are scrambling this week, organizing efforts to attempt to purchase the two parks after being notified the current owner has plans to sell.

“We are doing a lot of door knocking,” said Noreen Moore, who owns a mobile home in the Willow Bend neighborhood. “I think knocking on the door, and talking to someone individually might be more successful because explaining what a (resident-owned community) does — and doesn’t do — is the big thing.”

Moore is part of a group of owners that includes her Oak Creek neighbors Frinda Galey, Shawna Warbington and Joe Buettgen. The group has been knocking on doors and talking to other community members about the idea of purchasing the land where their homes sit. The group is hoping to reach out to others in the community to create a resident-owned community, or ROC, where residents collectively manage the land.  

“It’s very important they understand,” Moore said. “It’s not that the residents own the lot underneath their home — the collective owns it, and hopefully the collective won’t be doing what the private corporations do.”

The current owners, OW Steamboat LLC, sent out a notification to residents earlier this month stating there is an interested party attempting to purchase the Willow Hill neighborhood at 201 Wild Hogg Drive and the Willow Bend neighborhood at 400 Willow Bend.

Specific details of the offer remained somewhat confidential Monday, although they had been shared with the homeowners for the purpose of evaluating and/or obtaining financing, in compliance with section 38-12-217 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The statutes require the current owner to inform those that live in the 66 homes in the parks that the sales process has begun.

Galey said that the mobile home residents have 120 days after receiving official notice to come up with an offer for the landowner, meaning that offer must be submitted no later than January 2026. To do that, she and other residents are trying to form an ROC that will attempt to line up the financing needed to make the bid.

“They have the right to submit an offer,” said Todd Elenz, a Steamboat Springs attorney representing the owners. “The owner is obligated to consider (that offer) in good faith.”

Galey, who has owned her mobile home and lived in the Willow Bend community for more than 30 years, said her hope is that residents can find a group willing to help make the purchase a reality. She has reached out to the Thistle Community Housing Program, which helps residents create ROCs and purchase their mobile home parks.

Residents are also looking into the Colorado Department of Local Affairs’ Mobile Home Park Acquisition Fund, which partners with fund administrators to provide low-interest, flexible loans to help resident homeowners purchase their mobile home parks.

The group also has reached out to Drew Blanchard, Oak Creek’s housing innovation manager.

Galey’s fear is that her lot rent, currently $1,322 a month, could increase with a new owner, or that the owner will have other ideas about how to use the land where her home sits. She said if residents can purchase the mobile home parks they live in, it would bring a sense of security that comes from controlling lot rents.

Oak Creek Town Administrator Louis Fineberg said he was aware of the possible sale. He said that the town is defined by performance districts that offer guidelines for use and that if a new owner wanted to change the use of the area where the mobile home parks are located, that modification would need to go through the town and county planning process.

Residents said that lot rent has increased regularly since the parks last sold in March 2023. Sale price for the land was $8.4 million, according to the county assessor’s website.

“In the perfect world, somehow our offer would be considered appropriate and the owner should take it,” said Moore. “But in this case, I’m just not sure what will happen.”