HUNTINGTON BEACH : Mobile Home Park Review Panel OKd

The City Council has approved the formation of a nine-member Mobile Home Review Committee to explore ways to ease conflicts between park owners and coach owners.

The committee is expected to look into major issues but will not arbitrate landlord-tenant disputes, Mayor Grace Winchell said.

It is expected to work on ways for tenants to buy the parks and a process for the filing of grievances. It may establish a mobile home hot line to give tenants an opportunity to discuss problems, Winchell said.

The council will appoint the nine members--three park owners or management officials, three tenants and three residents at large. The committee will start work in January and will be disbanded in July, 1995.

Mobile home residents, complaining about rising rents and alleged park violations, called for the creation of the review committee in September.

Ron Laramie, president of the Mobile Home Assn., said some park owners have refused to talk to tenants and they have no place to go to file their protests.

Laramie said he hopes the review committee can set guidelines for the establishment of a permanent panel that can take up controversial rent stabilization.

Vickie Talley, a representative of the park owners, argued against the formation of the review committee, claiming that disputes should be worked out individually between tenants and owners at each of the parks.

She said in an interview that tenants have “manipulated the political process” in order to work for rent control.

There are 19 mobile home parks in the city. They have 3,094 mobile home spaces and a population of more than 4,500.

Mobile home parks provide affordable housing for older residents and entry-level homes for young people, officials said.