Mobile Home Park Owners Sue Laguna : Housing: They say they can’t sell Treasure Island because of city measure requiring 10-year duration for the park and relocation payments for residents.

Owners of a Laguna Beach mobile home park sued the city on Thursday, charging that a measure passed by the City Council blocks the owners’ right to sell the 29-acre park.

After a conference in chambers between lawyers for both sides in the dispute, an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered the ordinance held in abeyance pending a hearing next month, according to K.P. Rice, president of the Treasure Island Residents’ Assn., which opposes the suit.

The council measure, passed last month by a 3-2 vote, would force the owners, Treasure Island Associates, to maintain the site as a mobile home park for 10 years or pay current residents relocation costs of $23 million, or $130,000 per owner on average, according to the suit.

Because of the council’s action, the suit charges, the owners can’t sell the park they bought five years ago for $43 million.

The mobile home park has been a fixture in Laguna Beach for 35 years, and is home to 180 mobile homes. About 100 other residents have been bought out by the new owners, who want to develop the property.

Rice said that the remaining residents of the park “would like to take care of our own problems by negotiating” with the park’s owners.

The residents’ settlement proposal involves a package of selling some of the remaining homes and concentrating those who wish to stay on a small portion of the land.

“If they’ll sell us a small section of the place, folks who want to stay can do so, and those who have to leave would get to leave,” Rice said.

The park’s owners could not be reached for comment.