📰BIDDEFORD | Council Votes to send Mobile Home Lot Fee Ordinance to Policy Committee for review -Mobile Home Lot Rent, Significant Lot Rent Increases, Homelessness, Affordable Housing & more

February 3, 2026, At this evening’s Biddeford City Council Meeting, councilors voted unanimously in favor to refer the “matter of rent practices in mobile home parks to the Policy Committee for review and recommendation.”

This vote comes following a prior meeting where the council denied a request to establish a 90 day moratorium on Mobile Home Lot fee increases in Biddeford.

Meeting materials state, “this new order is to refer the topic to the Policy Committee to review and develop next steps.”

Why this move? According to Mayor Liam LaFountain, “recently across Maine, out of state companies have been purchasing mobile home parks and imposing significant lot rent increases. This is literally pricing out occupants who are on fixed incomes out of their homes. The State Legislature has recognized that and passed LD 1765, An Act to Ensure Affordability and Stability in Residential Housing and in Manufactured Housing. The State further drafted a Model Rent Stabilization Ordinance for consideration by Municipalities.”

Lafountain went on to state, “members of the City Council have been approached by constituents concerned about recent, significant lot rent increases imposed by out of state landlords. This presents and exemplifies that there is an emergency affecting life, health, and property for housing stability for certain mobile home park lot renters because of rapidly escalating lot rents.

LD 1765, An Act to Ensure Affordability and Stability in Residential Housing and in Manufactured Housing Communities, was enacted by the Legislature and signed by Governor Janet Mills on June 18, 2025. Section 2 of the legislation directed the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) to undertake a series of tasks related to manufactured housing communities (also referred to in this report as “mobile home parks” or MHCs), and by December 31, 2025 submit a report to the Joint Standing Committee on Housing and Economic Development detailing the results of that work

Mayor LaFountain added, “there is an immediacy to address the manner of Lot Rent increases to foster stabilization of housing within certain mobile home parks. The purpose of the order will allow the City to examine the State Model Ordinance pursuant for Lot Rent Stabilization for Mobile Home Parks, set forth as Appendix 2 in the LD 1765 (Attachment 1), authored by the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, and attached in its report to the Joint Standing Committee on Housing and Economic Development.”

Next steps will be provided by the City once reviewed by the Policy Committee.

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