HUNTINGTON BEACH : Mobile Home Park Review Board OKd

Responding to mobile home residents’ complaints of rising rents and other concerns, the City Council has moved to create a review board to resolve conflicts between tenants and park owners.

Ron Laramie, president of Huntington Beach Mobile Home Assn., told council members that in the absence of a review board tenants had no place to go to air their protests. Some park owners hare “flatly” refused to meet with tenents, Laramie said.

However, mobile park representatives said that complaints were exaggerated and that differences with residents could be best solved in individual meetings between owners and tenants.

Laramie also called for a rent stabilization plan, but City Council officials indicated they won’t become involved in the dispute to that degree.

Only Councilman Jim Silva voted Monday against a motion that City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga develop a proposal for the composition and duties of a review board. The principal aim will be to get both sides to work together to solve problems.

Silva said he is concerned that a review board might lead to rent control. He also opposed spending city funds on a review board. Those costs weren’t estimated.

About 4,500 people live in 18 mobile home parks throughout the city. Vickie Talley, executive director of Manufactured Housing Educational Trust of Orange County, said average rent for spaces ranges from a low of $288 a month at Beach View Mobile Home Park to $675 at Huntington by-the-Sea Mobile Village, which is a half block from the ocean.

Huntington by-the-Sea led the way in the rate increases this year, climbing $47 a month, she said.

However, several parks didn’t raise their space rents in 1993, including Brookfield Manor, Cabrillo, Driftwood/Oceanview, and Rancho Huntington, she said.