Council grants mobile home park residents another year at site
Homeowners hope to buy the facility
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Conejo Mobile Home Park residents were relieved when the City Council unanimously extended for one year an urgency ordinance that protected the park from an impending closure.

During the Jan. 9 City Council meeting Ben Paras, holding a sleeping child in his arms, pleaded with the council to protect him and his family from the closing of the mobile home park where he lives.

He and his family left the San Fernando Valley area to settle in Thousand Oaks so that they could live in a safe place and his children could attend quality schools, Paras said. He spent all of his savings to move into the modest mobile home park and would have nothing if he was forced to abandon his home, he said.

Conejo Mobile Home Park president Richard Erickson has organized a nonprofit organization to protect affordable housing for lowincome residents of Thousand Oaks with the intention to purchase the mobile home park, he said.

"The year extension should give us the necessary time to continue our negotiations with the park owner, (Joe) Bednar, in our attempts to purchase the park," Erickson said.

Bednar, who said he's currently planning to close Conejo Mobile Home Park for redevelopment, had asked the council not to extend the moratorium. He described what he saw when he purchased the park.

"I saw it as an old, old, old mobile home park . . . one that has run its course. I saw it as a mobile home park with a life expectancy--like everything has a life expectancy," Bednar explained.

He saw old trailers, old utilities, rent control and liability in keeping the property open, he said.

"I saw an excellent location for an assisted living community, a chance to expand my assisted living community, a chance to care for some more seniors, seniors in the Thousand Oaks area, something that I am good at, something that I've been doing for awhile," Bednar said.

In October 2005, the City Council initiated a municipal code amendment in response to the concerns of Conejo Mobile Home Park residents when notified the park might be closing. In addition, a city staff report said, rules concerning mobile home parks in Thousand Oaks were outdated.

Mobile home owners who would be displaced could lose their investments in their homes because there appeared to be no practical way to relocate the homes, the report said. Moving them could cause damage to the homes. Some were too old to be accepted in other mobile home parks even if a space was available. Many of the mobile home park residents were found to be low income, seniors on fixed income, or disabled and on federal assistance, with few options for finding other housing in the community.

In January 2006, the council adopted a 45-day urgency ordinance declaring a moratorium on approval of any application or entitlement relating to a mobile home park change of use or closure. The ordinance was extended until February 2007 during a March 2006 council meeting.

City staff recommended the council again extend the urgency ordinance because concern for the public safety, health and welfare of its residents--the impetus for creation of the ordinance--still exists. The City Council agreed they need more time to study and possibly take action by changing the city's General Plan. They may rezone mobile home parks within Thousand Oaks, some of which are in areas not limited to mobile home parks, locations that could be used for commercial or other purposes.

After the meeting, mobile home residents were rejoicing at the council's decision.

"We're very, very pleased with the City Council's action," Erickson said. "Hopefully we will be able to make an acceptable offer to buy the property."