Plan Limits Rent Hikes in Mobile Home Parks : Ventura: Council will consider tough law that restricts amount charged for spaces, sets up board to hear complaints and increases city oversight.

Seeking to protect residents of Ventura’s mobile homes from spiraling rent hikes, the City Council tonight will consider adopting a strict new law that limits the amount of money park owners can charge for their spaces.

The recommended ordinance drafted by City Atty. Peter D. Bulens also contains numerous other provisions that park owners contend would unfairly prevent them from making a reasonable profit.

Among other things, the draft law would allow owners of mobile home parks to raise rents annually by only 50% of the consumer price index, a national standard measurement for inflation. The existing ordinance, which is scheduled to expire Sept. 10, allows rent hikes of up to 75% of the index.

The law also would create a mediation board to review complaints and calls for oversight by city officials.

Controlling monthly rents on the nearly 1,900 mobile homes within the city has been a controversial issue since the City Council first adopted the existing law in 1981.

Park owners complain that they are being deprived of charging the fair-market value for their property, while residents contend that without such protections they would be priced out of their homes.

“I don’t know when I’ve had so much stuff to read,” Councilman Gary Tuttle said. “Depending on which side you listen to, it’s like night and day.”

Scores of mobile-home residents packed the council chambers last month when the matter first came up for discussion and the council requested the draft ordinance.

Tenants in the city’s 11 mobile home parks regulated under the existing rent control law say the draft ordinance goes a long way toward correcting many abuses wrought by some park owners.

“We are very encouraged that the City Council has proceeded to accept many of our suggestions,” said Dick Schmittou, who sits on the Ventura Mobile Home Coordinating Council, an advisory board.

“We’re hopeful an ordinance will be in place indefinitely,” he said.

In addition to limiting what can be charged in monthly rent, the ordinance would force park owners to establish a utility fund that would be used to pay for repairs to utility systems in the parks.

The current law allows owners to charge residents more for monthly utilities than companies charge the parks. But residents complain that the extra money is not always used for repairs.

“It’s a safeguard,” Schmittou said. “If there’s no wrongdoing, then there’s no harm done.”

But Bill Schweinfurth of Vedder Park Management, which operates the Lemon Wood Mobile Home Park in Ventura and three others in Ventura County, said the proposed law is unfair to park owners.

“The combination of provisions in the ordinance is among the most radical in the state,” Schweinfurth said. “I don’t think it’s well understood by the council.”

Schweinfurth said that park owners have lived under the existing law since 1981 and that any changes should be more favorable to them.

“The trend has been to make ordinances more reasonable, not less reasonable,” he said. “It’s hard to understand. Everybody’s acting in extreme haste.”

Mayor Tom Buford, who was the only council member to oppose the June 5 action, said the proposal is overly complicated and caters to mobile-home residents.

“I don’t think we’ve had the kind of distress in the operation of our ordinance that would justify the city taking on significant administrative oversight,” he said.

“We should be seeking to simplify, not complicate, and this agreement goes in exactly the opposite direction.”

Sandy Hellman, a partner in the Country Estates Mobile Home Park, said the proposed law would make paying the maintenance bills difficult.

“If your annual increases in income can’t cover your annual increases in expenses, how can any business survive?” he asked. “This has been a difficult time for all of us.”