(a) Except as provided herein below, it shall be presumed that the net operating income produced by a manufactured home park during the base year provided the park owner with a just and reasonable return. Park owners shall be entitled to maintain and increase their net operating income from year to year in accordance with the adjustment procedures contained in this chapter.
(b) It shall be presumed that where the NOI is less than fifty percent of gross income in the base year, the park owner was receiving less than a just and reasonable return on the manufactured home park. In such a case, for purposes of determining the base year NOI, gross income shall be adjusted upward to twice the amount of the base year operating expenses.
(c) It shall be further presumed that the adjustments provided for in this chapter, including any adjustments to base year NOI and any annual adjustments provides all adjustments necessary to allow the park owner a just and reasonable return on investment for any given year.
(d) However, in the event a park owner contends that the application of these adjustments does not result in a just and reasonable return to the park owner for the particular year, the park owner may apply for an additional “special adjustment.” The application for a special adjustment shall be in writing in such form as provided by the commission and shall be heard by the commission at a public hearing to be known as a “fair return hearing.” Notice of the fair return hearing shall be given to the park owner/applicant and to the residents of the park by first class mail sent not less than twenty days before the date set for the hearing.
(e) At the fair return hearing, the park owner shall bear the burden of presenting evidence rebutting the presumption stated in subsection 16B-9(c) herein, and the commission shall hear such evidence, and consider such evidence as provided in Section 16B-14(d)(6), and determine, based upon the evidence presented, whether the adjustments as provided in this chapter are adequate to allow the park owner a just and reasonable return, and whether and to what extent a special adjustment is necessary to allow such just and reasonable return. The commission shall grant a special adjustment to the extent it finds such necessary to effectuate such just and reasonable return to that park owner/applicant. (Ord. No. 1362, § 1 (part).)