Newport backs off Marinapark rent hikes

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- A reversal of a plan to impose huge rent increases on

Marinapark mobile home lots has residents pleased but cautious about the

proposed renewal of their lease.

City Council members on Tuesday will consider granting the Balboa

Peninsula mobile home community a one-year lease extension that omits

rent increases proposed in a previous version.

“Well, they took back that horrendous rent increase, so that’s a good

thing,” said Stewart Berkshire, a Marinapark resident who has been an

advocate of the 15 full-time and 41 part-time residents there. “As for

the rest of it, we’re waiting until our lawyer has had a look before we

make any judgment.”

The city has proposed extending the lease, which expired in March, for

one year with options to renew for two more years. Residents had hoped

for a long-term lease, but city officials want to leave open the

possibility that developer Sutherland Talla Hospitality will build a

luxury resort on the site. The lease that has governed the mobile home

park lots since 1985 contains a provision that residents could lose their

lots one day if the city decides to develop the land for public use.

A one-year lease extension proposed earlier this year argued that

rents should be raised to market rates -- an idea that translated into

big dollars: A parcel that now costs $1,362.60 a month, city officials

said, is really worth $2,300. The lots that cost $924.83, they said, are

worth $1,950.

Residents cried foul, arguing that these “market rates” didn’t apply

because the short term of the lease lowered the value. Many said they

would be willing to pay the nearly doubled rates with a long-term lease,

but that in a one-year lease, the lots were worth much less.

City officials, in the end, saw their point. The newest revision to

the lease includes much smaller rent increases that are based on the

judgment of the residents’ appraiser, William Hansen.

“We agreed with the residents that Mr. Hansen should do the appraisal,

and we’re going to stick with the amounts he came back with,” said Dave

Kiff, Newport Beach’s assistant city manager.

Rents and future increases at Marinapark vary from lot to lot.

But the lease also contains the provision that the higher increases

will apply to a new owner if a Marinapark home is sold. Berkshire said he

had hoped the city would give a one-year grace period before enforcing

this increase to protect the home values of some of the community’s

poorer residents. It’s possible that council members could choose to

revise the current lease to allow such a provision.

FYI

* WHO: Newport Beach City Council meeting

* WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday

* WHERE: Council Chambers at City Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd.*

INFORMATION: (949) 644-3000

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

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