Mobile-Home Law May Be Revised, but Not Liked

VENTURA —  The City Council will consider revisions to a hotly debated mobile-home ordinance Monday, with both residents and park owners saying they dislike many of the proposed changes.

City staff members, however, say that opposition from both sides is a sign that the measure is fair.

“We feel it is in the middle because both sides dislike it,” said Mike Solomon, the city’s budget and risk manager. “It does what it is supposed to do for the residents but also provides a return to the owners.”

The proposed changes come nearly six months after the council approved the ordinance, which limits the amount of money that park owners can charge for their spaces. City officials are proposing the revisions in anticipation of a state ballot initiative in March that would make it harder for cities to amend any existing mobile-home park rent-control ordinances.

Key changes would:

*Let park owners recover interest costs from mobile-home owners on money spent for capital improvements to parks.

*Allow the city to charge $2.27 per mobile-home space to help pay for the costs of administering the ordinance. The fee would be split between park owners and tenants.

*Extend from 60 to 90 days the notice park owners must give tenants before raising the rent.

*Prohibit park owners from seeking leases longer than 12 months.

Tenants say they are leery of paying interest on capital costs, unless they play a bigger role in deciding what kind of projects would qualify under the ordinance.

“We want the ability to vote on items that aren’t required by law,” said Harold Simon, a resident of Imperial Ventura Mobile Home Park. “For instance, if the owner wants to put up a gold gondola in the middle of the park, we want to be able to vote on it.”

Park owners oppose helping to pay the administration fee, as proposed in the revised ordinance.

“The regulatory fee is extremely unfair because it is the resident who causes extra hours of city time to be spent,” said Sandy Hellman, a partner in the Country Estates Mobile Home Park. “There is no reason the owners should pay for an expense that is created by the resident.”

With an estimated 1,900 mobile homes in Ventura, city officials said they need the estimated $50,000 that the fee would raise to pay for staff time to administer the ordinance.

“A regulatory fee is not based on who benefits and who does not,” Solomon said. “If you want to do business in the city of Ventura, this is what it costs you to do it.”

But many park owners say they are most upset at the ordinance’s existing rent control terms, which they still hope the city will change. The ordinance does not allow park owners to raise the rents by the full amount of the consumer price index, a national standard measure of inflation. Although they can raise the portion of the rent tied to operating costs by 100% of the index, they can only raise the fraction associated with other costs and profit by 75% of the index.

“The city is allowing owners no way to increase their revenues,” Hellman said. “This is the slow road to bankruptcy with having your buying power decreased every year.”

Park residents disagree, saying park owners can be tempted to jack up operating costs if they know that increase will be fully covered by a rent hike.

“They have very little incentive to be efficient,” said Marion Woods, a resident of Ventura Marina Mobile Home Park.

The City Council is set to discuss the issue at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers.