By Caleb Wiseblood | Source
Six months after issuing an urgency order to stop mobile home parks for seniors from broadening to welcome all ages, Santa Barbara County is one step closer to something more permanent.
Adopted last November by the Board of Supervisors, the temporary moratorium expires on Oct. 25. The board’s intent was to put protections in place while staff researched and developed an ordinance to amend county zoning to reflect a senior mobile home park overlay zone.
On May 7, staff introduced the county Planning Commission to the proposed program, which also outlines a plan to grant certain protections to all-ages mobile home parks as well, project planner Lila Spring explained.
“There are two zoning overlays that are proposed as part of this project. Although the focus has been on senior mobile home parks as indicated by the project title, staff also propose an overlay for all-ages mobile home parks that are currently existing in the county,” Spring said at the May 7 meeting. “Mobile home parks provide a critical source of affordable single-family housing in the unincorporated county. And senior mobile home parks are especially important as they provide for the specific needs of seniors.”
Spring described the goal of the ordinance as aiming “to promote the continued use of mobile homes as an accessible housing option and to establish mobile home parks as the primary allowed land use on these sites.”
To illustrate the local housing demand for low-income seniors specifically, Spring said that there are 2,124 seniors on a waitlist for affordable housing opportunities in unincorporated Santa Barbara County, according to the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara.
The county Planning Commission voted 5-0 in favor of staff’s proposal. If the ordinance meets the Board of Supervisors’ approval, parcels of land surrounding 19 mobile home parks—11 senior mobile home parks and eight all-ages mobile home parks—in unincorporated areas will be subject to new land use definitions and parameters.
One of the lineup’s listed senior mobile home parks is Del Cielo Mobile Estates in Orcutt. In May 2024, the park’s management, Harmony Communities, notified residents of the owner’s intention to convert the park into all-ages. This announcement led many senior residents to request protection from the county, according to previous Sun reporting.
“I would just submit to owners, Harmony and others, if your desire is to provide all-ages housing in a mobile home setting, build them,” Planning Commissioner Roy Reed said at the May 7 meeting. “I think it’s time for us as a Planning Commission and for the board and as a county to step up and say that’s not a business model we accept or find attractive if it involves displacing these very deserving seniors.”
[ED. NOTE: GSMOL leaders and members throughout Santa Barbara County have been at the forefront of this campaign, particularly the GSMOL Chapter and members of Del Cielo Mobile Estates.]
