Boulder County to draft San Lazaro purchase letter without funding commitment

Boulder County commissioners directed staff Tuesday to prepare a letter responding to San Lazaro residents’ effort to buy their 213-household mobile-home park, but made no county funding commitment and did not disclose what the letter might offer.

The letter is expected within two weeks, staff told commissioners during the Aug. 11 meeting. County legal staff and the Office of Financial Management are expected to help draft it. The direction followed a confidential session on negotiating strategy involving the county-owned property at 5505 Valmont Road, the park’s address.

Commissioners did not identify a dollar amount, financing structure, conditions, repayment terms or deadline for the proposed letter. They also did not establish whether it would be legally binding. Commissioners discussed supporting resident ownership but acknowledged that the county has no policy governing contributions to a resident-owned mobile-home community.

The timing matters because the residents’ purchase period is running. Under Colorado’s mobile-home-park purchase law, residents generally have 120 days after the landlord mails a required notice of intent to sell to submit a proposed purchase-and-sale agreement with financing or guarantees, or to assign their purchase rights to a public entity. If they qualify during that period, the law provides an additional 120 days to close.

The county attorney told commissioners that a recent purchase offer restarted San Lazaro residents’ 120-day period. But the county had received only a copy of the notice and could not identify the date it was mailed. CBS Colorado reported that many residents received a letter the Saturday before its Aug. 11 report and that the letter was dated Aug. 5. That establishes a working timeline, not the legally operative mailing date. If the letter was mailed Aug. 5, 120 days would fall around Dec. 3, but that is not a confirmed deadline.

Staff said the residents’ proposed financing included about $5 million from the state and $11 million from the city of Boulder, although neither contribution had been approved. State awards typically total about $2 million, staff said, with awards as high as $5 million. Residents would have to apply for state and city funding. The county’s possible contribution remains unresolved, with no amount or funding source selected.

The Aug. 11 action starts a county response process; the letter’s terms and whether the county ultimately provides financial support remain unresolved.