Laguna Beach : Mobile-Home Residents to Picket for Stable Rents

Residents of the Treasure Island Mobile Home Park say they plan to picket Saturday afternoon on South Coast Highway in front of the park to protest possible land-rent increases.

Sally O’Halloran, a board member of the Treasure Island Residents Owners Assn., said the protest, which will start at 1 p.m., stems from residents’ worries about new owners of the park. The park recently was sold to a partnership that includes the Richard Hall Co. of Costa Mesa. Escrow is scheduled to be completed in September.

Hall officials have said they plan no drastic rent increases when they take over. They also have said they have no immediate plans to convert the property into waterfront estates and condominiums.

O’Halloran and other residents, however, have said they fear that any new increases in land rent would be more than many elderly, fixed-income residents can afford.

“We’re all going to be economically evicted from the park if we don’t get (rent) stabilization,” she said.

O’Halloran said the residents’ group is working with city officials to try to get the Treasure Island land rezoned solely for mobile-home use. The current zoning would allow conversion of the property into use for condos.