Mobile home residents fight ownership conversion

By Neil Nisperos

Staff Writer

CHINO -- Some residents of a mobile home park here said a state bill would help in their fight against the park owner's plans to turn their rental units into ownership lots.

The Lamplighter Mobile Home Park residents have expressed concern that they won't be able to afford the cost of staying in the park if the owners convert it from rental to ownership lots.

Low-income residents also fear the loss of rent control with a conversion. An attorney for Lamplighter said that would not happen.

"The people own the mobile homes, but they do not own the land that it's on, and the owner will have access to do whatever he wants and charging whatever he wants on the land," Lamplighter resident Michael Taylor said. "People cannot stay in their mobile homes because they cannot afford it."

Their fight, and similar scenarios throughout the state, have caught the attention of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara.

On Tuesday, Nava addressed 30 mobile home park residents in front of Chino City Hall about his bill that would help mobile home park residents fight conversions.

The bill would require that the owner of a mobile home park seeking a conversion has to provide an approving agency -- such as a city or a county -- with a survey that

guages resident support or opposition to the proposed conversion.

"If the city or the county wants to deny the application and they refer in any way shape or form to a resident survey they then open themselves up to a lawsuit, so what my bill does is it eliminates that ambiguity," Nava said.

The bill has passed both houses of the Legislature and Nava said he hopes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the bill. If approved, the bill would become law on Jan. 1.

Despite beliefs that rent control would be lost for low-income residents, Richard Close, attorney for Lamplighter owner Tom Morgan, said the assertion is false.

While higher-income residents would lose rent control protection after the conversion of their park, Close said the law enables a cap of 2 percent on the Consumer Price Index of their current rental rate.

"I think the lower-income residents are being misled by the upper income residents who want to stop the conversion," he said. "Most people in the park are (making) less than $50,000."

Even if Schwarzenegger were to sign the bill into law, it would not affect the residents of the Lamplighter, Close said.

"We have fulfilled all requirements to have a complete application and therefore the bill doesn't apply to this application," Close said. "We're hoping come up to the (Chino) Planning Commission within the next 60 days."

Morgan and Entera Management Company, which manages Lamplighter, expect to receive city approval by the end of the year.

Lamplighter residents George Klotz and his wife Elizabeth said they don't expect the commission to approve conversion plans.

"The Lamplighter is one of the largest sources of affordable housing in the city and the city needs affordable housing, and they are very much in favor of it," Elizabeth Klotz said.

A recent neighborhood survey found about 93 percent of Lamplighter residents are opposed to conversion, George Klotz said.

Lamplighter is located at the corners of Ramona Avenue and Philadelphia Street.

neil.nisperos@inlandnewspapers.com

(909) 483-9356