City rethinks rent hikes at Marinapark

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- City officials are reconsidering a plan to raise

Marinapark residents’ rents after an expert weighed in that a proposed

property appraisal would be like comparing apples and oranges.

City Council members agreed March 12 to hire appraisers to determine a

fair monthly rent on the 56 mobile home park lots, where leases have just

expired.

But one appraiser, working on behalf of the residents, has written to

the city to argue that appraisals don’t apply because the city is

offering only a one-year lease with two one-year extension options.

“Comparing their rents to other mobile home parks really isn’t fair,”

said Bill Hanson, an appraiser who wrote to city officials last week on

the Marinapark residents’ behalf. “In an appraisal, we try to measure how

things would do on the open market, but the terms of that lease are not

measurable on open market because it’s just a one-year lease.”

He described the proposed lease extension as similar to a “lease

holdover.” Such situations, he said, are usually decided by negotiation

between the landlord and tenants and not by property appraisals.

Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said he is reconsidering whether

hiring more appraisers would be the best way to resolve the situation.

“[The] council decided to have a third-party appraiser look at it, and

now one appraiser has,” said Kiff, noting that the city has often hired

Hanson to do appraisals. “We have to decide now whether to go ahead and

hire more appraisers or bring this back to the City Council to ask if

they want to reconsider.”

The mobile home park residents’ lease expired last week. City

officials have advocated extending their stay for a short period of time

to allow for the possibility of a 147-room luxury resort to be built

there by Sutherland Talla Hospitality. The mobile home park residents’

original lease on the city-owned property includes a provision that the

residents would vacate one day to allow the city to put the land to some

public use.

The city has proposed a one-year lease extension that would bring the

rents to market rates, comparable with those at nearby mobile home parks.

This would roughly double most Marinapark rents, bringing the

$1,362-a-month lots up to $2,300 and the $925 lots up to $1,950.

Two years ago, residents offered to begin paying market rates in

return for a long-term lease. But they have protested the city’s proposal

to sharply increase their rents without a long-term lease, calling it

unfair and unrealistic.

“Those rates would be fair if you were talking about a longer-term

situation,” Hanson said. “But in this case, they don’t apply.”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .