LAGUNA BEACH : End of Freeze Chills Mobile Park Renters

Facing an immediate 7% rent increase after a six-month citywide mobile home park rent freeze ended, some residents of the largest park said this week that they’re worried.

“I think when anybody gets a rent increase they get the blues,” said Sunny Sprenger, who moved with her husband to Treasure Island just over a year ago.

While Sprenger said the increase bumped her $1,150 rent to $1,230, another resident said she has watched her rent skyrocket from less than $200 15 years ago.

Treasure Island residents have been locked in a bitter feud with park owners since the 27-acre oceanfront park was sold for $40 million in August to Merrill Lynch Hubbard and Costa Mesa businessman Richard Hall, who intend to eventually close the park and develop the site. Meanwhile, residents fear they won’t be able to afford rising rents.

In response, the City Council has taken a number of measures to increase stability in the parks, including a six-month rent freeze intended to buy time for mobile home park owners and tenants to work out their differences.

Tuesday night, however, the council allowed the moratorium to expire after reaching agreements with two of the city’s three parks to keep rent increases to between 6% and 7% while the city continues to explore long-term solutions to stabilize the parks.

Some residents said they were angry at the turn of events, while others began scrambling to find ways to avoid the rent increase.

Since Treasure Island park owners agreed not to impose rent increases on low-income senior citizens, 60-year-old Wesley Wisely said Wednesday he will learn this week if he and his wife are eligible for the exemption.

“It disturbs me quite a bit,” Wisely said of the increases that have raised his rent from $340 when he and his wife moved to the seaside community 10 years ago to $952 today.

May Brown, who has made Treasure Island her permanent home for 15 years, said her rent has risen from $175 to $1,082.

“I think a 7% increase is too much,” Brown said. “We are retired people on fixed incomes and we can’t leave. We’re vulnerable.”

But a representative for mobile home park owners said the increases are in line with other rising prices over the past decade.

“The value of that land has gone up probably that same amount,” said Michelle Brooks, a regional director for Western Mobilehome Assn., a statewide trade organization. “If you look at housing prices in the last 10 years, that’s almost identical.”

Brooks described the lease options rejected by tenants as “very gracious. They’ve offered more than I’ve seen almost any other park owner offer in a lease,” she said.

With the city agreeing to take the next year to search for other solutions, and the landowner imposing a “pretty standard” rent increase in the meantime, Brooks said she thinks park residents are reacting unfairly.

“It’s a definite give-and-take that the park owners have to work out, but they have one of the best mobile home parks in the state where they’re located,” she said. “It’s expensive to live here. Especially on waterfront property.”

While they may worry about the rent, Treasure Island residents indicated Wednesday they are in no mood to concede. And in a recent show of solidarity, the presidents of the homeowners associations for the three parks formed the Mobile Home Political Action Committee.