Marinapark closure could cost Newport

If city closes mobile-home park, it may pay each household up to $23,000 in relocation expenses. Residents of 54 mobile homes at Marinapark will have to move out, possibly in a year, and the city of Newport Beach could pay each household up to $23,000 for the trouble of relocating.

But the city may face complaints from tenants who think they deserve more compensation.

Marinapark is a 7.7-acre city-owned property on the Balboa Peninsula between 15th and 18th streets. In addition to the mobile homes, it’s occupied by a Girl Scout house, tennis courts, a public beach and a few other amenities.

The mobile-home community has been there since 1956, but residents could soon be asked to leave to make way for a new, more public use for the property.

In 2004, city voters nixed plans for a hotel at Marinapark, and the council has since been given eight possible plans for the property, but it has not selected one.

City officials last week received a report from a consultant on the possible effect of relocating Marinapark residents, and it will be discussed at the March 14 council meeting.

The city is required by state law to notify residents one year before closing the park. Compensation for moving expenses or loss of homes is not required but is a common practice.

Moving the mobile homes will likely cost between $19,550 and $23,000 per home, depending on size, the report said.

The consultants suggest the city could pay to move homes to other parks, offer homeowners allowances for temporary lodging and moving their belongings, and compensate them up to $3,000 for improvements such as carports and patios that aren’t allowed at the new home site or that can’t be moved.

As many as 11 of the homes probably can’t be moved because they’re not stable enough or additions have been made that would prevent it.

The report says owners of those homes could be offered up to $23,000 each.

Of the 54 homes on the property, about 28 are permanently occupied. Most of the others are second homes, according to a survey from the consultant.

Residents have been paying monthly rent between $1,400 and $1,650 for lots with views of the harbor, and other lots cost about $1,050 to $1,150.

Few mobile-home parks in the area have spaces available that can accommodate an existing home, the consultant found.

The report also noted that apartments of various sizes are available in Newport Beach -- though likely not on the waterfront -- for between $995 and $3,600 per month.

Council members will decide next month whether to offer the compensation recommended in the report, and they could start the clock ticking on the 12-month notification period, after which residents must move.

“I think that we feel pretty comfortable with the proposals that are put forward in the report as far as relocating the trailers is concerned,” Newport Beach Mayor Don Webb said.

Council members don’t agree, however, on whether residents should be turned out in a year or if they should get lease extensions if the city hasn’t decided what to do with the property.

As long as the city follows the legal requirements, Marinapark tenants won’t argue about moving out because they realize it’s the city’s land, said John Rettberg, president of the park tenants association.

But, he added, the tenants do have complaints with some of the report’s suggestions, specifically the amounts of compensation for relocating.

“Without doubt they’re not adequate,” Rettberg said, though he didn’t provide figures that he would consider more reasonable.