MIU to close Utopia Park over next two years

FAIRFIELD – Maharishi International University in Fairfield has announced plans to close Utopia Park, a trailer park built in 1983 to accommodate 7,000 visitors to the Taste of Utopia assembly, and which has remained a fixture on the north edge of Fairfield ever since.

MIU Vice President of Operations Jeremy Brenin said the trailers have deteriorated too much over the years to the point where repairing them is no longer economical, and thus the university plans to close the park in phases over the next 2.5 years. Brenin did not have an exact figure on how many people this will affect, but said 146 of the 176 trailers are occupied. The university will pay $800 toward moving expenses for each trailer, after entering into an agreement with Top Notch Movers.

PHASED CLOSURE

The park will be closed in six phases, and Brenin said that was done so the town’s rental market can adjust to so many people needing housing in a short time.

“We knew Fairfield’s rental market would not be able to absorb all 146 trailers at once,” he said. “We worked with the City of Fairfield and economic development, and we know that some developments are coming along. A lot of care and thought was put into making sure people would be taken care of, and to give the market time [to adjust] to additional residents.”

The first eviction notices went out on Feb. 1, and those residents will have six months to move out. Brenin said between 15-21 trailers will be shut down in each of the six-month phases until the park is finally closed in August 2028. The last phase will be the largest and involve about 40 residents who live in the center of the park.

Though previously set aside for individuals with a direct connection to MIU, Maharishi School or the domes, Utopia Park was opened to the public rental market under the property management firm Pleasant Plains LLC. Brenin said about 76 of the trailers are rented by people with ties to MIU such as faculty, staff or senior researchers, and another 70 trailers are rented to people with no official affiliation with the Transcendental Meditation movement.

REDEVELOPMENT

The university hopes to redevelop the land into Vastu housing, a style of housing that follows ancient Indian architectural principles such as having east-facing entrances. In fact, the university got a head start on this project in 2021 when it announced the pending construction of two three-plexes, which would then be followed by two five-plexes. The two three-plexes were indeed built, at the entrance to the park on the southeast side, but the five-plexes were put on hold. Brenin said the university will look into all options for new housing on the land, including townhomes, multi-plexes and even a 40-unit apartment complex.

When the plan for those triplexes was announced at a Fairfield City Council meeting, then MIU Vice President of Operations Tom Brooks remarked that the trailers had held up pretty well over the years, despite being built in just four to six weeks, with crews working around the clock. At the same time, Brooks said the trailers were never intended to last so long.

“1983 was a long time ago,” Brooks said in 2021. “We’re looking forward to more efficient, more dignified buildings with less maintenance.”

Brenin added that the university’s original plan was to only use the trailers for about six months, but later determined that they could stay and serve as housing.

“Now, 43 years later, they’re at the end of their life,” he said.

EXPENSIVE MAINTENANCE

Pleasant Plains LLC had been running Utopia Park, but the company notified the university in January 2025 that it was dissolving the LLC and that the university would assume management of the park on July 1, 2025. In the months that followed, the university assessed the condition of every trailer. The result was grim: too many trailers needing unduly expensive repairs.

“Everybody who lives in the park likes the affordability and community, but the long-term maintenance would be exorbitant,” said Brenin, explaining the difficult decision to close the park. “When the park was put in 43 years ago, there were not a lot of regulations as far as how deep the pipes or electrical lines needed to be buried. We discovered in the past 40 years that the ground has shifted, and we’re finding electrical lines not buried very deep, or [someone] hit a pipe gardening we didn’t know was there.”

A SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD

Among the park’s early tenants were Arla and Paul Rabalais, who moved in when the trailers were a little over a year old in 1985. Arla and Paul had been living in one of the residence halls on campus, so they were excited to move into a trailer.

“It was like a home, and not a couple of frat rooms,” Arla said. “You had your own bathroom, your own kitchen. It was a real upgrade.”

At that time, Utopia Park had a big open space with playground equipment and a sandbox. Arla said it was a great place for her and Paul to raise their two sons, Philip and Dominic.

“When our kids were little, people from town would drive their kids to Utopia Park for Halloween, because it was a big area with lots of places to trick or treat, and they knew it was safe,” Arla said.

In fact, the park made such an impression on the two boys that when they were older, they got chest tattoos of the trailer numbers the family lived in, 10A and 7B. Philip also wrote and directed a film called “Utopia Park,” starring his younger brother. The Rabalais family lived in the park until 2000, and Arla said the trailers were still in good condition when they moved out.

“I’ve visited the trailers in the last few years, and they’re not in good shape. They’re past their time,” Arla said. “My main concern is for the people who live there now and where they’re going to go. It’s a lot of people.”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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