The owner of a mobile home park sued the city of Thousand Oaks this
week, seeking to overturn a citizen-driven ordinance that provides
greater protections to residents should their park be sold.
The suit was filed Thursday in Ventura County Superior Court by
Vedder Community Management, which owns the 303-space Vallecito Mobile
Estates on Old Conejo Road.
It asks the court to invalidate the ordinance adopted unanimously by
the City Council on July 15 because it allegedly violates a number of
state laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act and
those governing mobile home park closures and discriminates against
individual property owners through arbitrary zoning.
The company is also seeking damages.
"This lawsuit represents an opportunity for the city to test its
resolve in continuing the City Council's long-standing support of
mobile home park residents," Mayor Jacqui Irwin said in a statement
Friday.
The ordinance was born of a grass-roots effort by residents living
in mobile home parks in the city to place it on the November ballot.
After it qualified for the ballot, it went before the council, which
had the option of adopting it or putting it to a vote of the people.
After the adoption, there was no need for an election.
The ordinance, which requires an owner looking to close a mobile
home park to pay relocation costs for residents, calls for the creation
of a new land-use designation for the nine mobile home parks and gives
residents more say over park conversions.
In a letter dated Friday and addressed to Irwin and the rest of the
City Council, William Schweinfurth, Vedder's director of operations,
wrote that his company had "labored under your regulations" and
described the city's ordinances governing rent control in mobile home
parks as an unfair scheme.
He alleged that during the 30 years the park has existed in Thousand
Oaks, the owners' concerns had gone unheeded and claimed the city was
seeking to "derail" the company's recent effort to subdivide the park,
which would result in the sale of Vallecito to residents.
"The reality is this: We have been damaged by your regulations,"
Schweinfurth wrote. "We have politely asked for relief and the city has
rejected that request over and over again for many years."
City spokesman Andrew Powers said the city prides itself on working with all its constituents.
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