WATERVILLE — Diana Combellick was hoping to retire this year, but she doesn’t see how it is possible with the cost of her mobile home lot rent increasing again.

“We moved here in 2022, and it’s gone up four times since I’ve been here, in just three years,” she said.

At 66, both she and her husband, Richard Combellick, who is disabled, live in Punky Meadows, a section of Countryside Mobile Home Park off West River Road, which has 263 homes. When the couple first came to Waterville from southern Maine, their lot rent was $325 and each year it has increased. In late September, it is slated to increase to $600.

“In hindsight, had we known about the increases, we would have never moved here,” Diana Combellick said. “We would have bought a house.”

She and others who live in the park plan to attend a City Council meeting Tuesday where councilors are scheduled to consider approving a proposed 6-month moratorium on mobile home park lot rental increases.

The moratorium proposal says lot rentals in the city are increasing rapidly, people can’t afford it and they do not have means or ability to move their homes. Some will be evicted and may become homeless, it says.

According to the moratorium proposal, the city needs to adopt a mobile home ordinance lot rental stabilization ordinance, but there is not enough time to adopt one before the proposed 20% increase in lot cost goes into effect in Waterville’s two parks, the only ones in the city.

Mark Hsu, a principal in C37 LLC, the private equity firm that owns both parks, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

State Rep. Cassie Julia, a Democrat, represents House District 65, which encompasses the two mobile home parks. The other park is Pooler’s Parkway, off Grove Street in the city’s South End that has 27 homes. Julia sponsored LD 1765, which the state Legislature passed in June, that requires the state to develop a model ordinance for rent stabilization by Dec. 31. Municipalities may use that ordinance, or a version of it, in their own communities.

Julia worked with residents of the Waterville parks as well as city officials to help create the proposed temporary moratorium on lot cost increases until city officials have time to review what the state comes up with and possibly create its own ordinance.

Julia, who serves on the state’s Housing and Economic Development Committee, said she got involved to help protect the people she serves. Julia is a member of the Waterville Planning Board, which often heard mobile home park residents’ complaints.

She said the cost to move a mobile home is between $10,000 and $15,000, and owners would have to buy or rent property to put them on, not to mention pay the costs associated with hooking up sewer, water and other necessities. She said some people on fixed incomes get only $1,200 a month and would have to spend half of that to rent their lot.

“This is a predatory situation,” Julia said Monday. “This is truly a matter of what is right and what is wrong and who is predatory and who is not.”

City officials asked William A. Lee, city attorney, to draw up language for the council to consider Tuesday as part of the proposed moratorium. Lee said Monday he researched what other communities have done, and the legality of rent control has been very well established in Maine. Portland, for instance, has a rent control ordinance for all rentals, not just mobile home parks; it was challenged after it was adopted but was upheld. Old Orchard Beach has a mobile home lot rental ordinance. In that town, if park owners want to raise the rent, they have to request a town review of the request and hear from both sides.

In such a review scenario, a mobile home park owner might argue, for instance, that a lot of money was spent on park improvements and unless the lot rental cost is increased, the park could lose money, Lee said.

Waterville’s moratorium is merely asking for more time for the city to look at the model ordinance the state develops, to be able to consider using it, Lee said.

“The city is not saying no to a rent increase,” he said. “The city is saying we need time to be able to see what the state is going to produce and whether we want to adopt it or some version of it.”

Joe and Loise Lemieux, 69 and 66, respectively, plan to attend the council meeting. They said a moratorium is a good first step to solving an issue that is worrying them and their neighbors in Punky Meadows. When the Lemieuxes moved into their double-wide manufactured home in the park in 2022, the park paid for residents’ sewer but the next year, that cost was shifted to residents. The bill was $53.46 on a quarterly basis, for a family of two. The park cuts the grass and plows the roads, but residents must clear their own driveways and pay for water and trash pickup in addition to the sewer fees.

Joe Lemieux testified before the housing committee at the Maine state Legislature about the lot rental increases and what they mean to his neighbors, most of whom he said are retired and on fixed incomes. Many own their homes, but are stuck on their rental lots because it is too costly to move, he said.

He and his wife shopped around for a decent plot of land to buy, but it would cost $40,000 for the land, $10,000 for the slab, $12,000 for a well if there is not already a water connection, about $2,500 for a mover and $10,000 to $15,000 to have their home moved, Lemieux said.

“You’re pretty well stuck,” he said. “As retirees, I don’t want to take out an $80,000 loan, eat up all your savings and investments.”

Countryside includes Punky Meadows and Village Green, which formerly were referred to as separate parks, but the state considers them as one park.

The City Council meets at 6 p.m. in the City Hall Annex at 46 Front St.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct Rep. Cassie Julia’s membership on the Waterville Planning Board.