Rent Limits for Mobile Homes OKd for Ballot : Santa Paula: Park owners criticize the initiative allowing a one-time $25 fee to cover costs when a coach changes hands.

Mobile home park tenants in Santa Paula have qualified an initiative for the November ballot that would prohibit park owners from raising the rent on park spaces when coaches are sold, city officials said Friday.

But mobile home park managers and owners quickly criticized the ballot proposition, calling it unnecessary and potentially unlawful.

Election officials have confirmed that the United Mobile Home Owners Assn. submitted 1,000 valid signatures needed to place the measure on the Nov. 3 ballot, said City Clerk Stacey B. MacDonald.

It was the association’s second try to place the measure before voters. The association circulated an identical petition in January, but the city rejected it because the full text did not accompany each petition, MacDonald said.

The initiative will first be considered on July 20 by the Santa Paula City Council, and then placed on the November ballot if the council does not adopt the measure first.

If adopted by either the council or voters, the measure would eliminate rent increases of up to 25% that park owners may charge new mobile home owners under the city’s current mobile home park regulations.

Instead, the initiative would allow park owners a one-time $25 fee to cover the administrative costs involved when a mobile home changes hands. Tenant activists blame the threat of rent hikes during vacancies for bringing mobile home sales in the city to a virtual halt.

Other provisions of the proposition would limit the ability of park owners to pass along costs of maintenance projects to their tenants, and extend rent controls to parks even if a majority of the tenants have signed long-term leases.

The measure would not change how the city’s current Mobile Home Park Rent Stabilization Ordinance determines annual rent increases, which are most often limited to three-fourths of the increase in the Consumer Price Index.

City Councilman Les Maland said passage of the proposition would have a significant impact in Santa Paula, because the city has more mobile home residents per capita than any other city in Ventura County. About 1,500 of the city’s 25,062 residents live in mobile home parks, he said.

Maland said mobile home owners pushed the ballot measure in reaction to several park owners who made a practice of raising rents the maximum 25% allowed by the city when a coach is sold. “A few park owners used that as a license to steal,” said Maland, who emphasized that other owners had been good landlords.

The association’s successful petition drive in Santa Paula is part of the continuing, nationwide dispute between park owners and the mobile home residents who pay “ground rent” for space in the parks.

Park owners have previously challenged rent control ordinances with some success, and many cities--including Ventura and Oxnard--have reached negotiated settlements with park owners to avoid costly litigation.

Representatives of the city’s seven parks reacted warily Friday to news that the proposition qualified for the ballot.

George Pfleiderer, an owner of the 44-unit Mountain View Mobile Home Park, said he would reserve comment until park owners had a chance to study it more thoroughly.

But Pfleiderer issued a cautionary challenge to the city. “If the initiative is not within the framework of the latest court decisions, the owners will take the city to court,” he said.

Pfleiderer said the proposed one-time $25 fee for vacancies “would clearly be illegal.”

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that rent controls can apply even when mobile home tenants sell their homes and park spaces to new buyers. The case, which involved the city of Escondido, has weakened the legal leverage of park owners.

“As a result of the Escondido decision, it seems the court is looking at home owners more favorably,” said Santa Paula Councilman Wayne D. Johnson.

Jerry LeBoeuf, who manages the 80-unit Anacapa Mobile Home Park, said the initiative would have little effect on his tenants because the owner, Henry Siemsen, has never increased rents as much as the city allows.

“Neither the owner or the tenants want anything to with it,” LeBoeuf said about the initiative.

United Mobile Home Owners Assn. President Helen Currier predicted that voters who are affected by the rising cost of living will sympathize with the plight of park tenants. She said association members will lobby for the measure at area service clubs and in newspapers, and plan to campaign by distributing flyers.

“We learned a lot with our unsuccessful petition,” Currier said. “We gained a lot of support among the voters by having to do it again.”