Mobile Home Rent Control Is Approved

Threatened by lawsuits from landowners and cheered on by tenants, the City Council gave final approval Tuesday night to a rent-control ordinance for mobile home parks.

The new law limits annual rent increases to either a 7% raise over the current rent or the current rent plus 75% of the annual consumer price index increase, whichever is less.

About 150 residents of the city’s three mobile home parks were on hand as the council brought the emotional debate, which has raged for two years, to a close.

“The whole name of the game here is to protect this community of people,” said Oliver Springer, a resident of Treasure Island, the city’s largest mobile home park. “Those of you who supported us, we love you.”

The ordinance, which rolls rents back to 1989 levels, won preliminary council approval last month. At that time, members asked city staff members to provide more information on vacancy control, a much-debated provision of the law that locks in rent control, even when a new tenant moves in.

Supporters of mobile home park owners said the vacancy control provision makes the Laguna Beach law one of the most restrictive in the state.

Charles Black, an attorney for the owners of Treasure Island, called the council’s action “a big mistake for the city.”

Tenants, however, said the additional control provides long-term stability for the park.

The council voted, 3 to 2, to approve the ordinance with vacancy control basically intact. But in response to threats of lawsuits, the council added wording to the law that will allow park owners to raise rents to new tenants if a state or federal court rules that the owner is in danger of losing the property without the rent increase.

Mobile home owners at Treasure Island have insisted that the absence of vacancy control has kept them from getting a fair price for their coaches on resale.

“The City Council of Laguna has shown its respect for humankind,” said K.P. Rice, president of the Treasure Island Residents Owners Assn.

Rice said prospective buyers had feared that rents would have been raised up to 20% and that residents would have been forced to sell to the park owner, who hopes eventually to close the park for other development.

The action makes Laguna Beach the county’s first city to enact a rent-control measure since San Juan Capistrano passed its law in 1981. Mayor Neil G. Fitzpatrick and Councilwoman Martha Collison, who have said they oppose rent control, voted against the ordinance.

A hearing officer will be appointed to decide disputes between landlords and tenants, but the officer’s decision can be appealed to the City Council.