LAKE FOREST : Mobile Home Issues Top Council Agenda

Two major questions involving the hottest political topic of the past year--mobile homes--will be considered by the City Council tonight.

Council members could pass a master lease that would standardize rent agreements for mobile home tenants throughout the city.

Also, the council will again discuss whether to spend $97,500 to help Kimberly Gardens residents purchase the lease on their mobile home park.

The money would cover the costs of arranging a $6-million property loan that would pay for a 30-year lease on the mobile home park.

Last March, council members told Kimberly Gardens tenants they didn’t want to support the residents financially, despite the findings from a consultant that the city would get most of its money back.

The council did write a letter of support that tenants used when seeking assistance from the county.

County supervisors expressed a willingness to help, but only if Lake Forest City Hall also pitched in with financial support.

In a letter to Jim Froelich, president of the mobile home park group, Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez said he had “concerns regarding your request for county financial assistance without the participation of the city of Lake Forest as a partner.”

The Lake Forest council will decide whether to join with the county to support the Kimberly Gardens tenants.

On the other question going before the council, the master lease would tie future space rent increases to the consumer price index, but doesn’t have rent rollbacks considered crucial by those living in the city’s four mobile home parks.

Most of the 1,200 tenants in the parks say they’ve been hit with excessive rent increases in the past five years.

Park landlords have told council members that the space increases have been fair.

Both sides have produced statistics that they say prove their point.

However, council members have declined to roll back rents, saying they didn’t want to impose excessive government regulation on the park landlords.