La Verne Drops Ban on Children in Trailer Parks

Families with children will be able to move into mobile home parks previously reserved for older adults, despite concerns by some mobile home owners and city officials about the children’s safety and the serenity of senior residents.

The City Council last week did not renew an interim ordinance that had established minimum age requirements for new residents in La Verne’s eight mobile home parks. The 45-day ordinance, which was passed by the council Sept. 2 and renewed Oct. 17, expired Thursday.

The council allowed the ordinance to expire because of federal fair housing legislation signed by President Reagan in September that preempts the authority of cities to set minimum age requirements for rental housing, including mobile home parks.

The new federal law, which goes into effect in March, prohibits owners of any type of rental housing from restricting residency to adults only. Under the law, mobile home parks must be designated either for general residency--with no age limits--or for senior residents. To qualify under the senior designation, 80% of the mobile homes in a park must be occupied by a person over 55.

City officials seeking to retain the adults-only status of La Verne’s mobile home parks were told by officials of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that the law’s intent is to allow park owners to decide whether to designate their parks for senior residents, Assistant City Manager Jeff Allred said.

‘Bad Legislation’

But even owners of parks designated for seniors will not be allowed to prevent families with children from moving into a park if 80% of the mobile homes already there would still be occupied by seniors.

“I think it’s bad legislation,” said Councilman Thomas Harvey, a member of the city’s Mobile Home Subcommittee. “I don’t believe all housing units need to serve all resident types.”

Mayor Jon Blickenstaff said the new law “would seem like a trend away from protecting the rights of seniors. . . . Many of the mobile home residents are senior citizens who had established roots and had not planned to move again.”

In recent months, owners of two mobile home parks have expressed a desire to begin renting spaces to younger families, city officials said. Marvin Schwartz, owner of the Kings Way Gardens mobile home park, filed suit against the city in Pomona Superior Court last month, challenging the legality of the city’s ordinance requiring seniors-only parks.

Although they do not expect a great influx of children into the parks, opponents of the new legislation say it is an unfair imposition on senior citizens who bought mobile homes seeking a peaceful environment.

“We as senior citizens have been through the family raising process,” said Clarence Hannan, 65, assistant director of the Golden State Mobile Home Owners League, a statewide lobbying group. “We’re through raising children and we’re not interested in going back into the business.”

Harvey said officials wanted to keep the parks for older adults exclusively because they were not designed with children in mind. Mobile homes tend to be packed densely into the parks, meaning that older residents could be subjected to increased noise from young children or teen-agers.

“Teen-agers like loud music, they like to have their friends over, they like life a little more boisterous than the rest of us do,” Harvey said.

But the greatest source of concern, Harvey said, is the risk to children who would live in the parks, since the parks do not have sidewalks or play areas. Older residents said they are worried about the danger of children playing in streets and driveways.

“(Residents) are concerned about safety, about backing out of the driveways and not being accustomed to having children around,” said Geri Kazmaier, who lives in the Kings Way Mobile Home Park.

Mobile home owners groups are lobbying HUD officials, seeking clarification of the new law’s application to mobile home parks. HUD will issue specific regulations in February and city officials are hoping that they will provide some avenue for retaining local control over the parks.

“We’ve registered our opinion with HUD,” Harvey said. “I am not heartened by the likelihood (of changes in the law), but anything can happen.”

Mobile home owners are hoping that the impact of the new law will be minimal and slow in coming if the turnover of homes in the park, which is currently about 5% a year, does not increase significantly.

“We have only eight coaches (mobile homes) for sale,” said Kazmaier, who lives in a park that contains more than 200 homes. “As long as the people in here don’t panic and put their coaches up for sale, there can’t be much of an influx.”