Council puts brakes on mobile home deal

Deirdre Newman

City leaders Monday halted the Planning Commission’s efforts to craft

an interim measure to protect the mobile home owners at El Nido and

Snug Harbor trailer parks, which are slated to be closed in June.

The City Council unanimously rejected both an interim ordinance

and an agreement with one of the parks’ owners, Joseph G. Brown, on

the grounds that neither could be applied retroactively to Brown’s

pending application.

Instead, the council directed the commission and members of the

planning staff to continue working on a comprehensive mobile home

park ordinance that would pertain to park conversions and closures.

But Councilwoman Libby Cowan put Brown on notice that he should

work with the mobile home owners on an equitable relocation package.

From the dais Monday night, she launched into a cool, collected

diatribe against Brown, declaring that if he fails to treat the

owners respectfully, he can expect the council to act swiftly to

protect the owners in the future.

“I do not believe Brown has been fair and equitable -- he has been

despicable,” Cowan said. “My challenge is to take this break we’re

giving you and become a decent human being. Work with [the owners]

and come to a solution, because if I get the relocation report and

things are not satisfactory, I’ll slam an interim ordinance on you.”

Brown said he disagreed with Cowan’s characterization of him.

“What’s happened is Libby has heard months and months of

residents, and not much else from us, which is our choice,” Brown

said. “I think we should put together a package and refute everything

There’s just some stuff that isn’t real realistic.”After the

decision, loud cheers erupted from a group of mobile home owners from

the two parks. This group has railed against the relocation package

Brown has offered as not being equal to the value of the homes. Brown

is mainly offering owners $3,000 to relocate.

Irene Shannon, a feisty owner who has been one of the most vocal,

said she was pleased with the council’s decision.

“With the conditions they put on it, I’m real encouraged, because

any chance of it going retroactive was slim,” Shannon said.

In May 2002, Brown applied for a change to the city’s general plan

to convert El Nido and Snug Harbor into a medical office building. He

has also said that he will close the parks if the application is not

approved.

About 42% of the owners from both parks have already accepted his

relocation offer, Brown said. Brown said he has a relocation team on

site two times a week to help the remaining owners find a suitable

park to move to.

The Brown family is also spending $7,000 to $8,000 a month in rent

to hold spaces at other parks for these owners to move to, said Joe

Brown Sr., who consults his son and two daughters, who jointly own

the park. But they aren’t having any luck with the holdouts, Brown

Sr.

“I just want these people to say, ‘I want to move here or there,’”

Brown Sr. said. “Instead I get, ‘You’re just a bad guy.’ I guess it

comes with the territory. My family has done nothing but be kind to

these people for all the years we owned it. We’re not a big

corporation, just a little family, and we feel for each of their

pain.”

In July, the City Council directed planning staff members to

change the city’s procedures for mobile home park conversions to make

them more specific so it would have more authority over the process.

The city’s authority is limited by state law.

The Planning Commission first considered a broad ordinance that

could be applied to Brown’s application, and would expand the city’s

authority to also include mobile home park closures.

But at the Oct. 13 meeting, planning staff and commissioners

realized that if this ordinance were approved, Brown would have to

redo his application and relocation report. So an interim ordinance

pertaining only to Brown was suggested. Planning Commission Chairman

Bruce Garlich said the ordinance was pursued as a safeguard, since it

would have required Brown to comply with an independent review of his

relocation report

Deputy City Atty. Marianne Milligan then suggested an agreement be

negotiated between the city and Brown that would accomplish the same

purpose as the interim ordinance, but be done faster and protect the

city from liability.

After rejecting both the interim ordinance and an agreement,

council members indicated that they are anxiously awaiting the

independent examination of the relocation report, which Brown paid

for. The third-party review is expected to be ready early next year.

Councilman Mike Scheafer said he was impressed by Cowan’s

unrestrained comments toward Brown.

“It showed a lot of courage on her part to say that,” Scheafer

said. “Sometimes people don’t have the guts to say what they really

feel. She kind of summed up what we all feel. I thought she did a

wonderful thing [Monday] night.”

The Planning Commission will again consider the comprehensive

mobile home park conversion/closure ordinance at its meeting on

Monday.