Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Council says mobile-home-park closure process needs refining

By Jeff Kearns

Last week's Town Council hearing on mobile-home-park conversions turned into a sometimes emotional discussion of Silicon Valley's housing crunch.

Councilmembers were considering changes to the town's procedure for closing mobile-home parks, but residents of the town's two parks fear that they might lose their homes if the parks are redeveloped out of their financial reach.

The new ordinance would require mobile-home parks, if replaced, to offer the same amount of housing at the same affordability levels as before.

The council decided that there were too many loose ends with the two proposed amendments, and voting unanimously against adopting the new guidelines, it sent the proposal back to the General Plan Committee and the Rent Advisory Committee for further discussion this summer.

Residents say they need to be protected from having their parks turned into luxury condos.

"I can't afford to live anywhere else right now. I'm on State Supplemental Income and my daughter is disabled, and if the park gets closed I don't know where we're going to go," park resident Paula Alves said.

Many other park residents echoed her concerns, including seniors, college students and single parents who said they were lucky to have an affordable place to live in Los Gatos. Some parents said that their kids would be forced to leave Los Gatos schools if the park closes, because they won't be able to live in town.

At issue is how much the town can do to protect the existing supply of affordable housing without putting too much of a burden on park owners.

"Government can only do so much, and we can't force any mobile-home-park owner to stay in business," Councilmember Randy Attaway said.

Park owners say the regulations are already too stringent and treat them unfairly compared to apartment owners.

"I'm vehemently opposed to this ordinance," said Gerald Mirassou, who owns the Bonnie View Mobile Home Park on Oka Road. "Los Gatos has decided to make mobile-home parks a repository for low- and moderate-income housing."

Mirassou picked apart the proposed ordinance in a May 4 letter to the town, which said that "Draconian" regulations effectively force park owners to subsidize affordable housing for their residents. He also asked that any ordinance be more specific in including units owned by the park or the occupant when closure studies are prepared.

Currently, the town requires that any mobile-home-park conversion provide at least as many units of very low-, low- and moderate-income housing units as were previously on the site. Additionally, whoever applies for the conversion must outline plans for accommodating displaced park residents during construction.

But future development on the site of a park is effectively limited in size--and profitability--by the requirements: Any additional development on top of the units that replace mobile homes will increase the density of the development. And the denser the project, the less likely it is to gain approval in the town of Los Gatos.

The new ordinance, if passed, would not affect the zoning of the site.

The proposed ordinance would add two additional considerations to the guidelines for closing mobile-home parks, which currently states that "any proposal to convert a mobile-home park to a residential development shall provide at least as many low-cost housing units as could be accommodated within the existing park's capacity."

Barry Swenson Builders has filed an application to convert the Los Gatos Mobile Home Park at 484 Woodland Ave. The application is still pending, but the necessary report won't be able to move forward until the town finalizes its rules for the process. The General Plan Committee originally suggested revisiting the closure rules in 1997 when it suggested updates to the general plan's housing element. Both parks have about 75 units.

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