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9 <br /> <br />A. Section 327C.095 Should be Liberally Construed to Give Effect to the Legislature’s <br />Public Interest to Protect Manufactured Home Residents and Their Communities. <br />The plain language of § 327C.095 demonstrates the statute’s purpose in preventing and <br />remediating the significant harm caused by park closures. Subdivisions 6 and 7, among other <br />sections protecting residents, were added in 1991 as House File (“HF”) 172/Senate File (“SF”) <br />154. Act of April 17, 1991, ch. 26, S.F. No. 154, Minn. Laws 47. Before the 1991 amendments, <br />the statute ensured notice of planned closures, procedural rights for residents and notice-and- <br />hearing requirements before local authorities, and certain limited compensation for relocation <br />expenses. Ch. 26 Minn. Laws, § 1-2; Minn. Stat. § 327C.095, subds. 1-5. Sections 2 through 4 <br />of the 1991 Act added, inter alia, subdivisions 6 and 7, which includes requirements for: <br />(a) notification of plans to close the park from the purchaser to the owner and from the <br />owner to residents, <br />(b) a 45-day period for residents or a nonprofit authorized by owners of 51% of homes to <br />“meet the cash price and execute an agreement to purchase the park for the purposes of <br />keeping the park as a manufactured housing community,” <br />(c) residents’ right to “meet[] the cash price and the same terms and conditions set forth <br />in the purchaser’s offer” except for “owner financing”, and <br />(d) the right of residents to be notified and purchase the property when the buyer “decides <br />to convert the park to another use . . . within one year after the purchase of the park.” <br />Id. These provisions clearly reveal legislative intent to protect residents from displacement and <br />ensure they have a meaningful opportunity to purchase on the same terms as a developer. <br />Courts addressing other states’ analogous laws have observed these purposes and <br />interpreted those laws in accordance therewith. As stated by Massachusetts’ highest court: <br />The goal of the statute is to avoid discontinuances of manufactured housing <br />communities and to ensure that tenants of such communities are not left at the <br />peril of their landlords due to a practical inability to relocate a manufactured <br />housing unit. The statute enables residents of manufactured housing communities <br />to purchase the land on which their homes exist and thus avoid discontinuances of <br />27-CV-16-9809 Filed in Fourth Judicial District Court <br />8/5/2016 8:53:55 AM <br />Hennepin County, MN