Mobile Home Owners Can Purchase Lots

Following a recent long-awaited decision by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, residents of Top o’ Topanga Mobile Home Estates now have the opportunity to purchase the lots on which their mobile homes sit.

The residents have been involved in a six-year effort to convert Top o’ Topanga from a rental to a resident-owner park.

An early effort failed when a conversion became difficult in the weak real estate economy of the early 1990s, said Jim Taylor, managing general partner of American Capital Property Management Inc., which owns the park.

When a new incarnation of Resident Owned and Run (ROAR)--the group leading the effort--emerged to start anew in 1994, a decision not to rehire a conversion consultant brought a second delay. The San Diego-based consultant sued the owners seeking brokerage fees from potential sales, Taylor said.

After that suit was settled, negotiations between residents and the owners stalled after much of the park’s infrastructure was damaged in the Northridge earthquake, said Bea Feldman, a resident and vice president of ROAR.

But the residents persevered.

“Most people don’t earn a sufficient amount of money to buy the American dream, a piece of property with a home on it,” Feldman said.

This is one way, she said, they will be able to get out from under ever-increasing lease payments on the land--although they do not have to purchase and may continue to lease the space through American Capital.

Many lower-income and disabled residents will receive state housing funds to help them purchase the lots, which would sell for $60,000 to $100,000, Feldman said.

The park’s owners said they were pleased with the Planning Commission’s June 18 approval. “The future of mobile home parks, in some circumstances, is dependent upon people having the opportunity to buy their lots,” said David M. Horn, president of American Capital.