Buellton City Council to look into protecting mobile home owners

 

The owners of valley mobile home parks soon could be stuck footing the bill if they decide to sell or develop their property and their mobile home park tenants are forced to relocate.

After receiving a petition from the Homeowners Association for the Ranch Club Mobile Estates in Buellton, located at 330 West Highway 246, the City of Buellton is taking the first steps toward drafting an ordinance that could protect local mobile home owners. At its March 27 meeting, the Buellton City Council agreed to research and consider the possibility of adopting an ordinance that would require mobile home park owners to either pay relocation costs or to buy mobile homes from displaced park tenants in the event that the mobile home park is developed, sold or closed.

More than 40 spectators filled the Council Chamber to hear the outcome of the homeowners association’s request.

 

In a 3-0 vote, with Mayor pro tempore Dale Molesworth abstaining, citing a conflict of interests, the council accepted a sample ordinance from the Ranch Club Homeowners Association and promised to return in 60 days with information that could lead to the city implementing such an ordinance.

The issue is important to mobile home owners, who say they are left between a rock and a hard place when park owners decide to change the use of the park by selling or developing the property, leaving mobile home owners without a place to relocate or the means to do so.

“You really have to sympathize with the [mobile home] homeowners, who are stuck in limbo,” said Councilwoman Victoria Pointer. “It really puts them in a bad situation.”

As an increasing number of mobile home park owners are deciding to sell or develop their properties, local governments across the state either have implemented or are considering similar ordinances. Huntington Beach and San Luis Obispo already have adopted similar ordinances. Other counties, such as Ventura, have stopped park owners from converting their properties without the approval of their tenants.

 

“There is virtually no where else to go if the mobile park closes,” said Ruth Strobach, a resident of Ranch Club Mobile Estates. “This situation has been happening all over the state.”

The city council’s decision follows a landmark decision in 1993 in the case of El Dorado Palm Springs, LTD. v City of Palm Springs et al. In that case, an appellate court ruled that the City of Palm Springs had overstepped its boundaries when it denied El Dorado Palm Springs’ conversion application. Since then, the state has restricted local governments’ authority in accepting or declining mobile park owners’ requests to convert their properties.

 

Morris Jurkowitz, owner of the Ranch Club Mobile Estates, submitted an application to convert the 232-unit property from a strictly rental property into an ownership park in June 2006. In February 2007 the Buellton City Council approved the tentative conversion. Jurkowitz has a maximum of five years to complete the conversion process; many tenants have expressed concern about the time provision.

“People change, even city councils change,” Strobach said. “We’re trying to look ahead a bit and plan.”

 

While the city reported that 72 percent of the tenants supported the conversion and only 11 percent opposed it, Ranch Club Mobile Estate tenants say they have been left out of the loop as the application moves through the process, which they argue leave them with limited options.

Though the park has been appraised and a survey completed, the tenants have not seen any results, Strobach said.

Strobach added that her attempts to get an answer from the park owner have been unsuccessful.

Tenants can’t sell their mobile homes because buyers won’t purchase a home in a park that has an unknown future, she said.

“They won’t buy a pig in a poke,” she added.

 

Though council members agreed to move forward, researching the possibility of an ordinance, Councilman Ed Andrisek endorsed a “double-prong” approach, which he contended would expedite the process.

He called the five-year time frame “deplorable” and said he’s witnessed first-hand mobile home owners dying since the process began almost two years ago.

“This ball hasn’t moved forward in 12 months,” he said. “That’s far too long. It’s like having a five-year escrow.”

Mayor Russ Hicks and Pointer reminded park tenants that the prospect of drafting an ordinance was still in its infancy and that a lot of research had to be done before the council could move beyond the research phase.

 

“There are a lot of details that would have to be looked at as this moves forward,” Hicks said.

The process is a “very costly endeavor,” Pointer said, that is an “ongoing issue, and it’s not going to be done overnight.”

After the city council returns with results from the city’s research on the topic, it then will decide whether to recommend a draft ordinance to the Planning Commission, which will then decide how to move forward.

 

 

In other City Council News

The city council honored Sgt. Sandra Brown for her service to the City of Buellton. It also unanimously voted to allocate two block grants, one each to Santa Barbara based Legal Aid and to People Helping People.

The block grants will pay for one attorney routinely to visit Buellton to assist residents with legal services. It also will pay for a middle school after-school program in Buellton.

The council also voted 3-1 to increase the Cost of Living Adjustment per individual for city employees to 3.5 percent. The adjustment is intended to offset the effects of inflation on the pocketbooks of the municipal workers.