Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : City Cancels Mobile-Home Park Purchase : Lancaster: The council reverses itself after objections from residents and warnings about physical problems.

Just two weeks after agreeing to buy a private mobile-home park for nearly $3.7 million, the Lancaster City Council has voted to cancel the deal, citing objections from residents and supposed physical problems with the park.

The council voted 5 to 0 Monday night to rescind the city’s purchase of the Lido Estates Mobilehome Park, a 121-space complex at Avenue I and 26th Street East. The council had voted June 7 to approve the $3,675,000 purchase from Lido Estates, a partnership headed by Michael Flesch.

Apart from residents’ objections, city officials complained Monday that the complex has a faulty sewage system that sometimes causes residents’ sewage “to burst from their commodes,” soil subsidence problems and mobile homes located too close to the park’s boundaries.

However, Gail Owenby, the park’s manager, faulted the city for moving so quickly to first buy and then cancel the deal. She also said city officials had exaggerated the park’s sewage problems and had known about the other issues long before they the purchase was agreed to.

Councilman George Root, the council’s leader on mobile-home park issues and resident of another park, acknowledged that residents’ angry reaction at a meeting held several days after the original June 7 decision played a role in the reversal.

The city has been on a campaign to buy mobile-home parks from private owners to help preserve the units as affordable housing. The council voted in May to buy its first park for nearly $3.9 million. With the Lido deal now undone, the city is still negotiating with a second park owner.