By Jennifer Sawhney | Source
The city’s lawsuit seeks to enforce Youngstown Mobile Home Park’s designation as a seniors-only residential area.
Park operators claim the city’s ordinance regulating that designation is unlawful and discriminatory. They say they will ignore the ordinance and serve all families.
This case is part of broader legal disputes involving multiple mobile home parks and rent stabilization concerns in Petaluma and Sonoma County.
In an effort to control who can live at seniors-only mobile home parks, the city of Petaluma is suing Youngstown Mobile Home Park and Daniel Weisfield, co-founder of Three Pillars Communities, which operates the park. It is also suing mortgage company Fannie Mae, as it “holds a recorded interest” in the property, as well as 50 other unidentified individuals.
The city seeks to prevent Youngstown’s owners and operators from unlawfully ignoring the city’s senior mobile home park overlay, which was approved in October 2023.
Its suit contends park officials are allowing young families to move into the mobile home park, a 102-space residential area on N. McDowell Boulevard, despite the park’s longtime designation as seniors-only.
However, Paul Beard, Weisfield’s attorney, said, “Petaluma is attempting to compel Youngstown to illegally discriminate against families with children. The city’s complaint has no merit, because the city’s ordinance is patently unlawful … It purports to force the park to engage in federally prohibited discrimination. The park will continue to serve all members of the community seeking quality affordable housing, including families with children.”
Petaluma’s court action comes a year after Youngstown’s owners filed their own lawsuit in January 2024 against the city, challenging the senior overlay.
This is the latest in a series of protracted legal battles involving Petaluma and Youngstown and the Harmony Communities’ residential parks: Little Woods Mobile Villa, a 78-space park on Lakeville Highway, and Capri Mobile Villa, a 69-space all ages park on N. McDowell Boulevard, both also in Petaluma.
Harmony Communities also manages Countryside Mobile Park in Cotati, and Carriage Court in Santa Rosa.
In Cotati, Harmony threatened to close Countryside after the city approved its senior overlay ordinance, designating the park a seniors-only residential area. Harmony subsequently sued Cotati, also arguing that the overlay discriminates against families with children in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act. Cotati officials have also counter-sued.
In Santa Rosa, Carriage Court converted to all-ages as the city is taking steps that will potentially strengthen senior-only protections for it and 11 other parks within Santa Rosa.
Operators at all three Petaluma parks have sought to raise rents by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars beyond the limits outlined in the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, triggering costly arbitration hearings and subsequent challenges to the arbitration outcomes at Youngstown and Little Woods.
Operators have also threatened to close the parks, contending they are operating at a loss as they are forced to accepted subsidized rents. They also argue that government overreach has undermined park owners’ property rights.
Mobile home residents typically own their homes, which are more stationary than the name suggests, and pay rent for the land underneath, as well as for their utilities.
“This latest litigation is consistent with the (Petaluma) City Council’s clear and public direction to staff to ensure that the city’s regulations intended to protect the rights of the city’s nearly 900 mobile home households, continue to safeguard their quality of life, housing stability, and investments in their homes,” Petaluma ity Attorney Eric Danly told the Argus-Courier.
ED. NOTE – Youngstown is the primary park of a GSMOL Super-Chapter that includes other Harmony parks in the area. Super-Chapter President Jodi Johnson and the other GSMOL leaders have been the driving force behind the Senior MHP Overlay and the protection of residents of all the affected parks.
