SANTA CRUZ - The court on Tuesday handed Santa Cruz County a boost in its widely-watched effort to protect rent-controlled mobile home parks.
Superior Court Judge Paul Burdick said that county leaders have flexibility when deciding if a park owner can sell off a park's rented parcels and establish a condominium-type arrangement instead.
Such a change, which can mean a loss of rental housing as well as a loss of local rent controls, had been denied at the 147-unit Alimur Mobile Home Park in Soquel, prompting its owner to sue the county for $15.6 million in damages.
On Tuesday, Burdick dismissed the owner's bid to essentially compel the county to approve the park's conversion to owner-occupied lots, despite the near certainty of appeal.
"We haven't won the war, but we won the latest battle," said county Supervisor John Leopold, after learning of Tuesday's ruling. "What happens at Alimur will affect the thousands of people in Santa Cruz County who live in mobile home parks."
Leopold and his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors fear the loss of Alimur as a rental park could pave the way for dozens of other parks to similarly convert to condo-like setups, diminishing the county's stock of low-cost housing.
Burdick's ruling Tuesday sends the issue of Alimur's conversion back to the county Planning Commission, where commissioners will have new, court-sanctioned power to decide the matter.
The attorney for the park's owner, out-of-county businessman Paul Goldstone, said the Planning Commission's decision against his client was a foregone conclusion and vowed to bring the case back to court as soon as the commission, followed by the Board of Supervisors, had gone through their motions.
"Further hearings by them will be futile," said attorney Thomas Casparian, with Santa Monica firm Gilchrist and Rutter. "It's only going to delay the final ruling by the court of appeal."
Casparian said damages his client is seeking would escalate. He has defended the conversion before, saying it would have little effect on park residents but limit his client's potential to rightfully capitalize on his investment.
The legal issue Tuesday centered on whether county leaders can consider the wishes of park residents when making decisions about mobile home park conversions.
While county leaders, by statute, have say over such land divisions, Casparian argued that state law limits how much say they have and what factors they can consider. Casparian said the county was not at liberty to weigh a survey of park residents, showing they overwhelmingly opposed the conversion.
County attorneys countered that state law requires the survey and hence the county has the right to weigh the survey in its decision-making.
Burdick agreed.
"I'm having a difficult time reaching the conclusion that the local agency is prohibited from considering the result," he said. "Why do the survey if the results are not considered?"
Since denying the conversion in April, county leaders have rescinded a local ordinance, because of legal questions, that required resident surveys to be at the root of their decision. With Burdick's decision, county leaders can now defend their use of the survey under state law.
Several local governments across the state are similarly trying to block mobile home park conversions, with varying levels of success.
Casparian says the impact of the conversion at Alimur would be minimal. The owner of the park will allow residents who can't afford to buy their parcels to continue renting; while the conversion would do away with local rent control, state controls would kick in, and Casparian says the owner will cap rents for those not covered under the state rules.
When the current tenants move out, rent controls would then cease, a prospect that worries county leaders.
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