Park Sale Plan Shields Mobile-Home Owners

Local mobile-home residents would be given a chance to step in and buy the park they live in before the lots are sold to an outsider, under a San Diego City Council proposal designed to stop the high rent increases that accompany most park sales.

The legislation, which will be heard by the Planning Commission on July 2, would also allow mobile-home tenant associations to divide a park into separate ownership parcels. Tenant associations that attempt to purchase a park would have to be nonprofit, and the groups would have 120 days to match an outside offer to the park owner.

According to Councilman Ed Struiksma, who introduced the measure, the proposal is needed to curb the high rents that result whenever a park is sold. Many of the residents have fixed or low incomes.