The owner of a mobile home park in Marshall, Minn., fired back in a legal filing this week responding to a lawsuit by the city.
The response by the owner of the Broadmoor Valley mobile home park, Schierholz and Associates Inc., argued that the city’s current zoning and building codes have no power over the property.
The city of Marshall, in a complaint filed on May 16 in Lyon County District Court, had accused Schierholz and Associates of creating safety hazards for residents.
The complaint said the owner of the park illegally padlocked one of the property’s two entrances. After a gas leak at the park on May 13, firefighters couldn’t evacuate residents quickly due to the padlock, the civil complaint said. The complaint noted that city code mandates two exits for manufactured home parks, and said the park had refused access to city employees, deeming them trespassers.
But in the response filed Thursday, Schierholz and Associates denied most of the city’s allegations and filed counterclaims.
The owner argues that the park, constructed in two phases beginning in the 1960s, predates the current city ordinance regulating mobile homes from 1998. The filing claims earlier agreements and state law are what apply to the park, which current owner Paul Schierholz bought in 2001.
The filing also accused the city of conspiring against Schierholz, alongside the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, which launched a lawsuit accusing the controversial Colorado businessman of neglect in 2021. In January, a jury sided in favor of Schierholz and Associates on almost all claims.
Schierholz afterward became involved in another legal battle, as the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) in February filed a lawsuit against his company alleging he had violated a 2022 grant agreement. Schierholz has called the lawsuit “bogus allegations.”
