LAGUNA BEACH : Panel Approves Rent-Control Plan

A strict rent-control ordinance proposed for mobile home parks that would roll back rents to January, 1989, levels and limit annual increases to 50% of the consumer price index has been approved by the Laguna Beach Planning Commission.

Opponents of the ordinance, which must still gain City Council approval, said it would be the strictest of its kind in California, partly because it protects the oceanfront Treasure Island Mobile Home Park, where many homeowners are part-time residents or use their vehicles for vacation homes.

“Treasure Island is a vacation community for over half the residents there,” said Janet Gilbert, part owner of the park and a member of several industry trade associations. “There is no other vacation community in the state of California that is governed by rent control.”

But K.P. Rice, president of Treasure Island Residents Owners Assn., disputed that claim, saying the majority of the park’s 265 units are occupied year-round and that many part-time residents intend to move in permanently when they retire.

“We feel that justice has been done,” Rice said, referring to the proposed ordinance.

Homeowners said they were particularly pleased that the proposed ordinance includes a “vacancy control” provision that locks in rent control when a home is sold, making it easier for property to change hands, Rice said. In the past, prospective buyers have shied away from buying Treasure Island homes, fearing an automatic boost in rents, he said.

The park’s owners, who intend to eventually shut down the park and build condominiums and single-family homes on the site, have been buying mobile homes in the park as they come up for sale. So far, they have purchased 60 homes.

Gilbert said her phones were “ringing off the hook” with calls from across the state Wednesday as word of the Planning Commission’s action spread. Richard Hall Co. of Costa Mesa owns Treasure Island, Laguna’s largest mobile home park, in a partnership with Merrill Lynch investors.

“What the Planning Commission has done is taken the most severe ordinances in place in the state and made them more stringent,” Gilbert said. “Some of the provisions will be challenged, not only from our organization but from every industry trade association in the state, as well as other property owners that respect private property rights.”

The ordinance was approved by a 3-2 vote Tuesday night. Commissioners Wayne Peterson and Kathleen Blackburn voted against it.

Commissioner Becky Jones said the proposal does not break new ground.

“It’s basically a classic rent-stabilization ordinance that would set a basis for determining base rent and for allowing increases on a yearly basis,” Jones said.

The City Council, which considers mobile home parks an important part of Laguna’s low-income housing stock, has been largely supportive of mobile home owners. Since 1989, the city has grappled with the highly charged issue of rent control in the city’s three parks.

A year ago, the council sidestepped the issue by imposing a rent freeze for low-income seniors, while allowing a 7% maximum rent increase for other park residents. The council guaranteed that the city would consider rent control and other protective measures for mobile home owners this year.

In February, the Planning Commission recommended that the council discontinue pursuing rent control for mobile home parks. But in March, the City Council rejected that advice and asked commissioners to draft a rent-stabilization measure.

The City Council is scheduled to consider the proposal June 18.

Rent control has been in effect in San Juan Capistrano since 1981. Dana Point is considering such a measure.