COUNTYWIDE : Rent Caps Asked for Mobile Home Parks

About 300 mobile home owners appealed to the County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to put a ceiling on the amount a park owner can increase rent when a space becomes vacant.

Two supervisors wanted immediate controls placed on those spaces. Although the remaining two members in attendance also favored controls, they preferred to hold off on any action until litigation concerning mobile home parks is settled.

Because of the split, the board took no action on the issue, which has inflamed mobile home owners and park owners throughout the state.

“You have four commitments for control--that’s a major change,” Supervisor John Flynn told the crowd, citing a shift in sentiment from the previous board.

The homeowners, most of them elderly, wanted the controls on the vacant spaces to prevent park owners from sharply raising rents when spaces change hands. They cited hefty increases and complained that without controls, owners have trouble selling their mobile homes.

“Please protect us from a bleak future,” said Harold W. Ruddick, who lives in an Ojai mobile home park.

But Ojai park owner Richard Conzoneri said it wasn’t fair to ask owners to subsidize rents for future buyers.

“That’s not the responsibility of a few park owners,” he said.

The county’s rent-control ordinance, adopted in 1981, allows annual rent increases of no more than 5%. It applies to 24 mobile home parks throughout the unincorporated area, with spaces totaling 1,555.

In December, 1989, the supervisors changed the ordinance to include a provision that allows park owners to raise space rents as much as they want when a mobile home changes hands.

The change came on the heels of a court decision involving a Santa Barbara County mobile home park. Controls on rent increases were determined to be unfair to the park owners.

The issue is now the subject of a lawsuit pending in federal court. The outcome of that case probably won’t be known until late summer or fall.