Council takes first look at Mobile Home Park report

By Jeff Kearns

Councilmembers on May 3 took their first look at the final draft of the Mobile Home Conversion Impact Report for the Los Gatos Mobile Home Park, and put off approving it to get more information on how other cities handle the complex procedure and what kind of legal precedents have been set by other closings.

Developer Barry Swenson is eyeing the mobile home park at 484 Woodland Ave. as the site for a new housing development, but before the town can approve any replacement for the park, it must make a series of findings required by state law governing mobile home park closures.

Councilmembers requested more information on compensation for renters--some of whom lived in the park before the closure notice was filed, and others who moved in later.

Councilmember Randy Attaway said the council needs to figure out how it can come to a conclusion by looking at what kind of compensation was required for mobile home owners in other closures, what methodology was used and what court challenges followed the closures.

"We want to know what other people have done so that we're really sound legally and that we have a real well though-out process," he said.

Planning director Lee Bowman compared the report to an environmental impact report, which officials and agencies use to gauge how a project will affect various aspects of environmental quality.

The closure report deals with what happens to the approximately 117 residents when the property is redeveloped, but it does not make a decision on whether or not to close the park or what replacement uses will be allowed. Rather, the report is used as information when town officials consider the application for conversion, Bowman said, which is required by Los Gatos ordinance to be processed at the same time as the application for the replacement use.

Swenson has filed his application for the replacement use, but has not yet begun the process in earnest because the closure report wasn't done. Bowman estimated that final action on the closure application is still 12 to 18 months away.

The town received the final version of the impact report in December. The Planning Commission considered the report in January, requested more information, and continued it to the March 10 meeting. At that meeting, the commission made comments and forwarded the application to the council.

The council scheduled its next look at the report for its June 21 meeting.

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