Another mobile home park bites the dust to make way for new development
The closing of the Pan American Mobile Home Park leaves just a handful of mobile home parks in Fort Lauderdale. Dozens of trailer parks have closed in South Florida in the past two decades, replaced by condos and apartments.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Welcome to ghost town.
Mounds of mangled metal mixed with old mattresses and concrete rubble line the roads that crisscross the Pan American Estates Mobile Home Park, one of the latest trailer parks destined for closure.
A developer plans to pave over the 25-acre property and rezone the land to make way for a project that would allow for up to 1,220 residential units.
Some trailers are still standing in Pan American, once home to more than 200 families. But most everyone has moved out after being offered a financial incentive to leave.
Clothes hung on the laundry line outside one trailer Thursday afternoon. But there were no children playing, no residents strolling the grounds, no birds chirping.
Two Florida Power & Light trucks sat parked along one roadway near a row of abandoned trailers.
One worker said they’d been sent out to disconnect the power lines. He said he knows of a few people still living in the park, but they were packing up and getting ready to leave.
Dozens of mobile home parks have closed in South Florida in the past two decades, replaced by condos, apartment complexes and townhouses.
Today, only 87 mobile home parks remain in Broward County, state records show. The count includes the Pan American Mobile Home Park, located in north Fort Lauderdale just west of Andrews Avenue and north of Cypress Creek Road. The closing of Pan American leaves just a handful of mobile home parks in Fort Lauderdale.
Pan American Corp. sold the mobile home park in October 2023.
Rezoning the property will double the density and nearly triple the height currently allowed.
The mobile homes were not in the best shape, Stephanie Toothaker, attorney for the developer, told Fort Lauderdale’s Planning and Zoning Board.
“There was a fire after everybody moved out,” she said. “The mobile homes were in extremely poor condition. They were unsafe.”
Mary Fertig, a member of the planning board, said she drove by to take a look and saw lots of empty concrete pads.
“There were broken windows,” Fertig said. “There is no one living there and hasn’t been in awhile. It looked terrible.”
The planning board gave unanimous approval to the rezoning request in February.
But the commission will have the final say. A commission vote on the rezoning request could be coming as soon as May 21.
John Herbst, the district commissioner for the neighborhood, says he’s not yet sure how he will vote. But he does have concerns about the loss of more affordable housing in a region that has seen the cost of housing skyrocket.
“I haven’t had a presentation from the investor group,” Herbst said on Friday. “In general, I’m not supportive of taking away affordable housing. But until I get a chance to sit down with the developer, I hate to speculate on what my position might be. But anything that takes away from our somewhat limited pool of affordable housing is somewhat concerning to me.”
Some say the loss of another trailer park is inevitable as land becomes scarce and developers look to redevelop.
“Over the years we have lost mobile home parks in our city,” Vice Mayor Steve Glassman said. “And there’s a reason for that.”
The closing of the mobile home park highlights the need for affordable housing — particularly housing that can withstand the region’s big storms, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
“It’s important for Fort Lauderdale to find new alternatives to housing solutions that don’t rely on homes that are at risk to extreme climate changes,” he said. “When a storm comes through these areas, people in mobile homes are the most devastated, often with no insurance. At least now people can seek out new homes in a deliberate way rather than searching for homes after a disaster.”
Existing zoning on the land allows for 25 units per acre. The developer is requesting the land be rezoned to Uptown Urban Village Northeast. That would allow 50 units per acre, double what’s allowed now, and increase the height cap from 55 feet to 150 feet.
The rezoning application is being processed by the city on behalf of the developer in keeping with the rules of the Uptown Urban Village Northeast neighborhood.
Fort Lauderdale established the Uptown Urban Village Northeast district in the Cypress Creek area to help lure developers willing to build housing in a neighborhood more known for its office and industrial properties.
“The site is within the boundaries of the Uptown Master Plan area,” said Chris Cooper, director of Fort Lauderdale’s Development Services Department. “When the city adopted the Uptown Master Plan in 2019, five new zoning districts were created, including the Uptown Urban Village Northeast district. To encourage property owners to rezone to the newly created Uptown Urban Village zoning districts, an incentive was created for the city to process rezoning applications on behalf of property owners.”
The project’s site plan is still under review by staff, Cooper said.
Once staff review is completed, the site plan will go to the Planning and Zoning Board for a vote.
The commission has the right to call up the project for a formal vote on the site plan, Cooper said.
“I cannot predict the timeframe at this point in the process,” he added.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan