SACO, Maine – The Saco City Council voted to enact a new local ordinance Monday to regulate mobile home park rental rates.

The ordinance controls how often and by how much landlords can raise lot rents in parks such as the Blue Haven Mobile Home Park on Portland Road.

“Certainly, the important thing right now is to get this passed and get as much protection as possible to the residents in Blue Haven and mobile home parks,” Councilor Sandra Guay said at Monday night’s meeting.

The ordinance indicated that landlords cannot raise rents more than once a year. It also mandates a 90-day notice to tenants before raising the rent. It also limits the amount, expressed in a percentage, to no more than the most recent annual percentage change listed in the Consumer Price Index +1%, or no more than 5%.

The ordinance is similar to language adopted by multiple communities statewide, with many more communities enacting a moratorium on lot rent increases while they fashion permanent ordinances of their own.

The trend is in response to mobile home park residents telling local officials that their rates are skyrocketing. Many such residents live on fixed incomes, prompting concerns that higher rents will drive them out of their homes, leaving them nothing outside of government subsidized housing.

At Monday’s meeting, some residents spoke out about these concerns, including Lisa DesRosiers of 18 Pine Haven Drive.

“For nearly a year, our community has watched neighbors live under a cloud of anxiety, facing unpredictable and unmanageable lot fee increases,” she said. “We are under a direct threat of displacement.”

In response to those concerns in Saco, Richard N. Bryant, a Portland attorney representing Blue Haven, wrote a letter to the council asking it not to approve the ordinance.

In the letter, Bryant wrote that any cap on rents will potentially drive investors away, which could also lead to less available housing in the city for low-income tenants.

“If the city restricts rents in a way that precludes a reasonable return for park owners, Saco will inevitably end up with less affordable housing for its residents,” he wrote.

Monday’s vote had little discussion among the council, but Guay noted that the ordinance as written may be a starting point, with the possibility later on of tweaking the language to address further concerns by residents.

The council passed the motion establishing the ordinance 7-0.