An uncertain future

Jenny Marder

It’s as close to paradise as any mobile homeowner could get.

At the Cabrillo Mobile Home Park, gardens are lovingly maintained,

windows are kept open to let in the ocean breezes, and from nearly

every rooftop, an American flag stretches proudly toward the sky.

There are five surfboards leaning against the flowered wallpaper

of the cozy living room that Barry Johnson shares with his “five

dollar mutt,” Wolfsburg. Four bikes and two skateboards crowd the

entryway, which is only yards from one of the best surf spots in

California.

“I like the simple life,” said Johnson, adding that after a rain,

he can see Catalina Island from his balcony.

But that dreamy life may soon be shattered.

After nearly 40 years as landlord of the 28-acre property, which

includes the mobile home park, the Action Boat Sales boatyard at the

corner of Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, and a strip of

degraded wetlands, the California Department of Transportation wants

to sell.

Johnson, like many of the park’s residents, fears what will happen

when the park changes ownership.

Caltrans has meddled very little in the resident’s affairs. The

park has few rules, and despite its seaside location, rent is dirt

cheap. Over the years, tenants have worked hard to improve the park

by building fences, laying asphalt and cleaning up trash. They also

built a community pool, a clubhouse and a basketball court with money

from their own pockets.

“The entire infrastructure of the park is resident built,”

Cabrillo resident Chris Stacy said. “[Residents] clean the land and

maintain the land.”

In 1965, Caltrans acquired the land from Mills Land and Water Co.

by eminent domain with plans to build a freeway. The freeway would

have run parallel to Pacific Coast Highway with a ramp leading to

Beach Boulevard, Caltrans agent John Brown said. But the project

quickly fell through, and Caltrans has retained the land ever since.

Now, the Mills Co., under the leadership of Robert London Moore,

is trying to take back the property it once owned.

An agreement is in the works, but the land must undergo an

environmental evaluation before the settlement agreement can be

finalized.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Moore would have the

right to acquire the mobile home park and the boatyard. Caltrans

would hold on to the wetlands.

Legal papers have been put on hold by Mills for the time being,

but once they are reactivated, it would take 18 months to two years

before the agreement could be finalized, City Planning Manager Scott

Hess said. After the environmental report is complete, the transfer

still has to be approved by the Planning Commission, the City Council

and the California Coastal Commission. No development plans are

included in the agreement.

“[The Mills Co.] has [filed] no plans to construct anything,” Hess

said. “This is only an exchange for properties and a change in the

general plan and zoning to match what’s out there.”

It remains to be seen what will happen to the wetlands and the

mobile home park, and some Cabrillo homeowners fear the consequences.

Rent at Huntington By the Sea, a neighboring mobile home park owned

by Moore, is nearly double the rent at Cabrillo.

“I’m worried about the rent doubling or tripling,” Cabrillo

resident Cindy Kelber-Ackley said. “I don’t see how most people here

would be able to afford it. Most people would be forced out.”

The park has many senior citizens living on a fixed income.

Cindy’s husband, Jeff Ackley, fears the seniors wouldn’t be able to

afford rent if it did increase.

Moore declined to comment on whether residents would see a rent

increase, and said that it was too early to speculate. He did say

that he had no plans to combine the two parks.

Homeowners are also worried that developers will build on the

wetlands that wrap around the park. The wetlands, while degraded, are

still home to a number of creatures. Kelber-Ackley said she has seen

rabbits, squirrels, butterflies and different species of birds, such

as terns, egrets, hummingbirds, gray herons and red-tail hawks. She

once took a photograph of six different species of birds in the

wetlands behind her home, she said.

Stephen Chase, an attorney for Caltrans, said that while plans are

still uncertain, Caltrans has no plan to develop on the land.

“Whatever we do or don’t do, it’s going to involve keeping the

wetlands as wetlands,” Chase said.

The strip of wetlands is in an area that the Huntington Beach

Wetlands Conservancy hopes to acquire and restore one day as part of

an uninterrupted stretch of wetlands from the mouth of the Santa Ana

River to Beach Boulevard.

“Our goal would be to eventually own all that property between

Newland [Street] and Beach [Boulevard],” said Gary Gorman, president

of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy. “How we may wind up

with that is undetermined.”

Stacy is wary of speculating too soon about the consequences of

the land transfer, but with other residents, he is gearing up for the

possible sale by doing research, developing city contacts and holding

community meetings.

Roughly 30% of the community has been attending meetings about the

pending sale, he said. He expects the number will rise as awareness

increases.

“This park has so many personalities. It’s a family,”

Kelber-Ackley said. “It would be really hard to say goodbye to this

place.”

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.