NEWPORT BEACH : Mobile Home Park Sale Plan Opposed

Residents of Bayside Village mobile home park for senior citizens are furious over an Irvine Co. plan to sell the land from under them.

DeAnza Assets Inc. of Beverly Hills is negotiating a deal to purchase the 54-acre park, which residents said will lead to higher rent.

Bil Gekas, president of the Bayside Village Homeowners Assn.’s Park Research Committee, said residents were denied a chance to bid for the property after trying to negotiate a deal with the Irvine Co. for the last four years.

“We want to bid against DeAnza, but the Irvine Co. is refusing to negotiate with us,” Gekas said.

Irvine Co. officials said the company’s policy is to negotiate exclusively with its lessees, and DeAnza holds the lease for the property through the year 2013.

Chick Willette, president of the company’s Irvine Land Management, confirmed that the purchase agreement with DeAnza is in its final stages, saying DeAnza agreed to keep a portion of the land as is--a mobile home park. The rest--Willette would not say how much--DeAnza can sell.

DeAnza President Barry McCabe could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Willette declined to say how much DeAnza will pay for the property.

“We want in on the contract and we want the Irvine Co. to talk to us now,” said Pat Greenbaum, a seven-year Bayside Village resident. “They can easily financially make us all go away by raising our rents.”

Other residents, too, are worried about their rent skyrocketing.

“We’re all worried and angry because we don’t think we’re going to be able to afford our places in the future,” said 89-year-old Ruth Wally, who has lived in the mobile home park for more than 18 years.

“A lot of residents will have no place to go if they are priced out of their homes,” Gekas said. “They’ve simply blown us off, and we just want to get in on the deal so that homeowners can have some security.”

The Irvine Co. has no control over what DeAnza can charge in rent, Willette said, adding that DeAnza had proposed redeveloping the property in the past, but the Irvine Co. rejected those proposals because it wanted the mobile home park to remain for the seniors.

Bayside Village residents currently pay from $568 to $1,300 a month for space for their mobile homes.

Willette said that DeAnza has agreed in principle to buy the mobile home park property and possibly sell a portion of it. However, marina slips and boat storage along Bayside Drive and Pacific Coast Highway that are part of Bayside Village are not for sale.

If DeAnza decides to subdivide the property, which is next to the Newport Dunes RV Resort, it will have to go through City Hall, a process that usually takes a minimum of four months.

“Residents will have the opportunity to be heard at the City Council’s public hearings then,” said Dawn McCormick, a spokeswoman for the Irvine Co. “We’re not insensitive to the homeowners concerns. We’re looking out for their needs.”

But some angry Bayside Village residents began making plans for a demonstration Saturday in front of the Bayside Village clubhouse.

Gekas said that DeAnza’s McCabe met with residents Wednesday night to let them know that DeAnza plans to “reappraise each lot as a condominium lot and sell them to us at market value. Prices will be double or triple. Most of us can’t afford it. . . .”

Gekas vowed to rally all the 266 mobile home owners to protest anything the Irvine Co. does until they are included in the negotiations.