‘It just will be too hot’: Boulder mobile home residents face summer without shade trees after owner cuts them down

This story was updated on June 25, 2025, at 3:30 p.m. to include details from the state’s written determination on the removal of the trees.

For decades, towering cottonwood trees provided welcome shade at Table Mesa Village Mobile Home Park, a small, tightly knit community in South Boulder. Some residents moved there specifically for the trees. But now, they’re all gone. 

Zane Blackmer, a local real estate investor, bought the park in 2016. Not long after, he removed more than half the trees. Earlier this year, he cut down the rest. He told residents the trees were nearing the end of their lives, were a liability during windstorms and had disrupted sewer lines. 

Some residents dispute that. They say the trees were healthy, had never caused problems under previous owners and served an essential purpose: keeping their homes cool during increasingly hot summers. 

“I won’t be able to sit in front of my home anymore like I have in the evenings for 22 years. It just will be too hot,” said one longtime resident, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. 

Mobile homes are especially vulnerable to heat. At least half the homes in Table Mesa Village were built before 1976, when federal insulation standards improved. Most lack central air conditioning and are built with lightweight materials that trap warmth. With climate change accelerating, Boulder is projected to experience nearly three times as many days over 95 degrees by 2030. Without the trees, residents say their homes could become dangerously hot.

Federal guidance supports their concerns. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, planting deciduous trees near buildings is one of the most effective ways to lower indoor temperatures and reduce the urban heat island effect. Trees can cool surrounding areas by as much as 20 to 45 degrees. 

Susan Gibson, president of the Table Mesa Village cooperative, lives in a home with aluminum siding that she says gets “really hot” in the summer. Like many of her neighbors, she lives on a fixed income and has never had air conditioning.

“I don’t want to start spending money on electricity in the summer,” she said. “But what’s it going to be like this summer when I have zero shade?”

Gibson said that after removing the mature trees in 2016, Blackmer planted a row of small, six-foot trees — but none are close enough to homes to offer meaningful shade, even as they grow.

Blackmer declined to comment for this story through a representative, saying only that he had “no interest in contributing.”

City officials have acknowledged the mounting heat risks for low-income residents in mobile home parks. After the 2022 death of a 92-year-old mobile home resident during a summer heat wave, the City of Boulder began distributing swamp coolers. But with only a few available for hundreds of homes, officials described the program as a temporary fix. 

Residents filed a complaint. The state sided with the owner.

In November 2024, residents filed a complaint with the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), alleging that Blackmer had violated state law by removing the trees without proper justification.

Under Colorado’s Mobile Home Park Act, park owners must maintain trees on the property unless they “pose a safety risk to any person, property, or infrastructure.” The residents’ complaint cited an arborist who reportedly called the trees “perfectly healthy” when half were cut down in 2016. It also states that the roots near the sewer line had previously been maintained without issue. 

But in March 2025, after speaking with residents, Blackmer and a second arborist hired by the owner, DOLA ruled in Blackmer’s favor. 

A DOLA spokesperson said the agency can issue cease-and-desist orders in urgent cases, but only when there is evidence of a violation and a need for immediate enforcement.

According to the agency’s written determination, obtained by Boulder Reporting Lab, the arborist hired by the owner evaluated 17 trees and concluded they posed a safety risk. “The trees in scope are a hazard to safety, and property damage,” the arborist wrote, citing their proximity to homes and potential to cause “catastrophic failures.” The arborist said the cottonwoods and one Siberian elm were “past their mature phase” and entering a decline phase when “large branch/whole tree failures occur.” The justification, DOLA concluded, was “in scope” under state law.

The ruling became final when neither party requested a hearing. Residents said they didn’t see a reason to appeal — the trees were already gone.

However, they questioned the process. “The people you’ve already paid to cut down the trees are attesting that the trees need to be cut down,” Gibson said. She also accused Blackmer of neglecting routine maintenance. According to Gibson, previous owners trimmed the trees every year, but she recalls Blackmer doing so only once in the nine years he has owned the property. Cottonwood trees grow quickly and have heavy, brittle limbs that can snap during windstorms. Regular trimming can reduce the risk. 

Gibson now wonders whether their complaint about the tree removals might have been more successful if residents had consistently reported missed maintenance over the years. She also believes the Mobile Home Park Act should be updated to require assessments by third-party experts, such as Colorado State University extension agents, rather than contractors hired by the owner.

“I would trust Colorado extension agents over the private company that the landlord already has a contract with,” she said.

Many feeling stuck

The dispute over the trees is only the latest flashpoint between Blackmer and residents of Table Mesa Village. Since purchasing the park for $3.25 million in 2016, Blackmer has raised lot rents from $475 to $1,050, which residents claim is a faster increase than they saw under previous owners. Many residents own their homes but not the land beneath them — and cannot afford the thousands of dollars it would take to move. That’s left many feeling trapped.

Mobile home parks represent a significant portion of Boulder’s affordable housing. But they’ve increasingly become targets for investors seeking reliable returns. Nationally, some operators have openly described park ownership as a lucrative business precisely because residents have few options to leave.

In 2020, Colorado passed a law giving residents the “opportunity to purchase” if their park goes up for sale. That same year, Blackmer listed Table Mesa Village for sale. Residents organized a cooperative to try to buy it. They made three offers, including one for $8.2 million, more than twice what Blackmer paid. He ultimately declined to sell.

“You would think that someone would want that big of a profit in such a short time,” Gibson said. “It felt afterwards like we’d been messed with, like he had never intended to sell us the park.”