Residents seek city help to avoid eviction

Deirdre Newman

Dick Matherly came to the El Nido Trailer Park in 1977 seeking refuge

from a heart-wrenching divorce.

He got a job that paid $2.25 an hour and only had to shell out $80

a month in rent. Five years later, he borrowed enough money to buy a

home of his own in the park for $5,000. He expected it to be his last

move.

Now, Matherly’s home is being evicted from the trailer park after

more than two decades.

Owner Joe Brown is trying to relocate residents so he can build a

medical office building on his property. He is offering to pay owners

up to $3,000 to move to another park, as well as other options.

But residents such as Matherly aren’t jumping at the offer.

They claim it’s not nearly enough to cover the investment they

have made over the years. They are taking their fight to city leaders

to get what they consider fair market value for their homes.

On Friday, a few residents of El Nido and Orange Coast Mobile Home

Lodge met with Councilwoman Libby Cowan to plead for an ordinance to

protect them. While it might be too late to help them, Cowan was

amenable to starting the process to protect mobile home park

residents facing relocation in the future.

BROWN’S PLANS

In May 2002, Brown, who also owns the adjacent Snug Harbor Village

Trailer Park, applied for a change to the city’s general plan to

convert the two trailer parks into a medical office building. The

council agreed to consider it.

He now has submitted the applications for the general plan change,

a zoning change, a master plan for the building and a mobile home

conversion request, City Planner Kim Brandt said. The public hearing

is expected to take place this summer.

Brown did not return calls for comment. But Marice White of

Government Solutions, who is working with Brown on community

outreach, said Brown is starting the relocation process before he has

approval for his project to give residents enough time to decide

where they will relocate.

Even without plans to turn the property into a medical office

building, Brown would close both parks because they are so old, White

added.

And although El Nido is referred to as a trailer park, it’s really

a recreation vehicle park, White said. So by law, Brown is not

required to provide any relocation assistance to the residents, she

added.

“What the Browns are doing is beyond what’s required,” White said.

RELOCATION COSTS

State law requires a local body such as a city council to

determine a reasonable cost for relocating mobile home park owners.

Brown is offering owners three options: paying $3,000 to move a

single-wide trailer and $6,300 for double-wide mobile homes to

another park; buying the trailers from owners for the same amounts if

they do not want to buy another one; and paying owners the same

amounts to help with their purchase of a new trailer.

Brown established the $3,000 figure because that is “market value”

for moving a trailer, White said.

Mobile home park owner advocate Don Hunter disagrees.

Costa Mesa-based Hunter said it costs $10,000 on average for

relocation within 50 miles, and that doesn’t include landscaping or

potential damage.

“If somebody can up and move these things for $3,000, they’re a

miracle worker,” Hunter said. “It can’t be done.”

Matherly, 75, said his home is worth a lot more.

“With all the good years and equity I put into it, it’s worth a

minimum of at least $20,000 to me,” Matherly said.

Residents are also worried that because their mobile homes are so

old, they won’t be accepted at other parks.

Hunter is encouraging the residents not to accept Brown’s offer

and to fight for protection from the council.

THE PERSONAL COST

How do you put a price on memories, Matherly asks.

Moving into El Nido changed Matherly’s life for the better. As

fate would have it, he moved into a home split down the middle into

two separate residences.

On the other side was Lori, also recovering from a divorce. It

took a hot water heater on the blink to bring them together, but they

lasted 17 years, until Lori died of cancer.

He is afraid that if he loses his spot at El Nido, he will lose

the memories of Lori.

Adding insult to the injury residents say they feel at being

low-balled, Brown gave residents notice he was closing the park

during the Christmas holiday season last year.

“It was really a shock, right at the holidays,” Matherly said.

While the park is not beachfront property, it is on the border of

Newport Beach and in a convenient location for shopping.

Many residents simply don’t want to give up the life they have

known and that they assumed would be their future.

“We all live here because we want to,” said Dorothy Harmer, a

nine-year resident. “We’re here for a reason.”

NO LUCK IN COSTA MESA

Costa Mesa’s zoning code requires a public hearing on mobile home

park conversion plans.

There have been a few efforts to enact more protections for mobile

home park residents, said Perry Valantine, assistant development

services director.

Two were initiated by council members, to no avail, Valantine

said. Another, in 1989, was from the president of Regal Estates

Mobile Home Park to establish a specific zoning category for mobile

home parks. That failed, as well.

The city has never been confronted with the closure of a mobile

home park, so there’s no precedent for El Nido, Valantine said.

OTHER LOCAL ORDINANCES

Other Orange County cities have passed laws to give their mobile

home residents more rights than the state requires.

Huntington Beach approved a Mobile Home Park Conversion Ordinance

that specifies a mobile home park zone and includes a relocation

assistance plan for mobile home owners. It also has a mobile home

advisory board mobile home owners and occupants and residents at

large.

In Laguna Beach, the closing of the Treasure Island trailer park

about 10 years ago served as the catalyst for an ordinance. A city

council ultimately decides whether the park can close. In the case of

Treasure Island, the council approved the closure, and the residents

received $20,000 to $80,000 for relocation.

But the price tag was higher because of the value of the land than

the homes, Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank said.

“The big issue is whether the appraiser places any value on the

land,” Frank said. “The owner of the land will always say that he

owns the land and the appraisal should not take into account any

value of the land. The owner of the coaches will always say,

especially in Laguna Beach, they’re entitled to the value of the

land. ... It ends up being a political decision of the City Council.”

In Anaheim about 15 years ago, the City Council took every mobile

home park in the city and put an overlay zone on it, so that if an

owner wants to develop the property for anything except a trailer

park, he must go through a public hearing.

“It’s basically just an effort to get the mobile home park owner

and developer and tenants to decide the most equitable way to close

the park,” said Greg Hastings, zoning division manager for the city

of Anaheim.

It’s high time for Costa Mesa to show that it respects mobile home

tenants and come up with an ordinance of its own, Hunter said.

CITY OFFICIALS REACT

While Cowan was sympathetic to the residents of El Nido, she said

she didn’t feel it was fair to Brown to push through an ordinance

that would affect his properties since he is in the middle of the

application process.

“I have a problem changing the process in midstream,” Cowan said.

“I don’t think it can apply to this situation because this ball is

already moving.”

She said the soonest the City Council could start considering an

ordinance would probably be July, and that would just be to direct

staff to look into drafting one. Voting on the ordinance would come

later.

She urged the El Nido residents not to look to the council for

relief, but to make their relocation decisions based on their own

personal circumstances.

Matherly left the meeting with Cowan disappointed.

“I don’t know if we made any progress,” he said.

CONCLUSION

Upon returning home, Matherly’s spirits were buoyed by the sight

of his lighthouses, which fill every nook and cranny of his trailer

and adorn the landscaping outside.

The affinity for lighthouses started when Matherly joined the

Merchant Marines at age 15 to fight in World War II.

The battle-tested veteran said he will fight to the end.

“I never lose hope,” Matherly said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.