by Pricila Flores, Noozhawk Staff Writer | Source
The Goleta City Council has extended the urgency ordinance to keep University Mobile Home Park a seniors-only community amid a federal lawsuit that park management served the city.
The extension was approved last Tuesday with a 4-1 vote, the same vote the ordinance received when the council initially approved it in February.
“At the end of the day, the State of California has identified the need to look out for seniors and preserve senior housing as a vexing and important public policy matter,” Councilman James Kyriaco said.
University Mobile Home Park at 520 Pine Ave. is one of five mobile home parks in the city and the only one that restricts residency to tenants age 55 or older, according to Lucy Graham, senior housing analyst.
When the mobile home park was sold to a new management company, Harmony Communities Inc., in October, residents began receiving mailed notices that there would be changes to the park, including becoming an all-ages community.
The urgency ordinance was meant to thwart the change, as council members and city staff said that Goleta prioritizes senior housing.
The ordinance, which went into effect immediately, created a new senior mobile home park zoning overlay district and a moratorium to keep the park senior-only. However, it was set to expire in early April.
Harmony representative Nick Ubaldi had said management would sue if the ordinance was approved during February’s meeting, saying Goleta would likely lose.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in early March by University Park Manufactured Housing Community LLC, claims Goleta violated the Fair Housing Act with the ordinance.
About two weeks before last Tuesday’s meeting, city staff said they were updating the overlay district and mobile home park database, creating an age-verification process for the park and researching potential ordinance amendments in regards to the overlay.
Residents urged council members to extend the urgency ordinance for the mobile home park as they did in February.
“It is a senior park. There aren’t any kids. There’s no place for them to play unless it’s in the middle of the street,” said Yolanda Marquez, a longtime resident of the park. “Please make sure that the 55-plus community stays.”
Councilman Stuart Kasdin voted against the ordinance in February and on Tuesday.
“To me, it’s the decision of the families to make. There’s not a lot of affordable housing in the city, and the problem is that it is so stretched that even things that aren’t ideal necessarily as far as playgrounds and other things would be better than housing that financially exceeds their ability to pay,” he said.
Some residents also spoke to the City Council on Tuesday about other concerns with Harmony’s management, including reported rent increases and evictions.
Council members were grateful that residents shared their concerns but directed them to outside resources such as the Legal Aid Foundation for help as the subject for Tuesday’s meeting was confined to the urgency ordinance extension.
ED. NOTE: University MHP has a Residents Association and a GSMOL Chapter, and they have been aided by GSMOL Zone B-1 Vice President Jamie Rodriguez and GSMOL State President Anne Anderson, both of whom live in the area.
