Los Gatos Weekly-Times Council asks for more input on mobile home park closure By Jeff Kearns Councilmembers sent a proposal to refine the procedures for mobile-home park closings back to the Rent Advisory Committee on Oct. 5, hoping to get more public participation before making a decision on a possible amendment to the town code. The amendment deals with replacing affordable-housing units lost to a mobile-home park conversion with other units on the same site or elsewhere in the town. Some councilmembers said many of the people who could be affected by the new ordinance weren't sure about how changes to the complex section of the code could impact them. "I'm not going to pass something that people don't understand," said Councilmember Joanne Benjamin. "It's important to have these discussions." The council said that it would ask the Rental Advisory Committee to come up with a list of important issues surrounding mobile-home park closures, which will be discussed before the proposed amendment comes back to councilmembers. During the Oct. 5 hearing, mobile-home park owner Gerry Mirassou said that putting the burden of providing affordable housing on park owners was unfair. "This measure is an extreme abuse of powers," he said. But some park residents say that without the parks, they would not be able to afford to live in Los Gatos. Several audience members, including Planning Commission chairwoman Sandy Decker, said that the town should look into the possibility of using Redevelopment Agency funds to help finance an alternative to the current situation. Discussing the changes to the ordinance puts town officials in a tough spot. Developer Barry Swenson has already submitted a preliminary application to start the process of redeveloping the park at the intersection of Woodland Road and Highway 9. While rewriting an ordinance, officials cannot discuss specific applications which may be affected by the changes, but because the town has only two parks, discussion almost always calls for looking at specifics. The council also denied a request by some business owners to repeal a new parking restriction on University Avenue in the Edelen preferential parking district. On Sept. 8, the town began 24-hour enforcement of permit parking. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 14, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.