ANAHEIM : City to Reconsider Rent-Control Issue

The City Council on Tuesday shelved a proposed rent-control initiative that would have severely limited increases at mobile home parks and asked for a city study of the plan.

The 3-2 vote came as a disappointment to mobile home park residents, who had collected just over 16,500 valid signatures to qualify the issue for a special election. Only 14,760 signatures are needed in Anaheim to bring an initiative before voters.

The city plans to study the fiscal impact of the measure and reconsider it in three weeks.

Clarice Jackson, president of the group that organized the signature drive, said she was “just irritated” by the council’s inaction.

“I think we’re going to get it on (the ballot), and I think it’s going to win,” Jackson said.

Vickie Talley, executive director of the Manufactured Housing Educational Trust, which represents some of the park owners, asked the council to study the fiscal impact of the ordinance and its constitutionality.

The initiative would reduce park rents to their 1988 levels and prevent future annual raises to 75% of the federal consumer price index, or an 8% increase in existing rents, whichever is less.

Since the initiative qualified for a special election, the council had three choices: adopt the proposed ordinance as law, hold an election or ask the city staff to study the proposal.