Oceanside in 1998 purchased the park with the intention of quickly handing it over to a nonprofit. That deal fell through, and the city has run it since, consistently turning a profit that has been reinvested into the park. An aerial view of the park shows significantly more landscaping, including several lakes with green lawns, than adjacent mobile home parks.
The board tasked with overseeing the park, the Oceanside Mobile Park Financing Authority, consists of the five-member City Council; Frances Thoene, a resident of the park; and Robert Neal, a member of the Planning Commission. Neal was absent.
In what would have been the City Council’s usual split, with Councilmen Jerome Kern, Gary Felien and Jack Feller voting to put the park out to bid and Mayor Jim Wood and Councilwoman Esther Sanchez supporting continued ownership of the park, Theone cast a tying vote, preventing any action from being taken and ensuring for now the city’s continued ownership of the park.
“I think it’s a smart business deal for the time being,” Wood said. “We’re actually making money, making people happy (and) reinvesting back in the park.”
The city doesn’t own the land the park is on, but was considering selling a lease that runs through August 2052.
Council members who wanted to sell the park said they didn’t think the city should be in the mobile home park business.
“The original intent was never for the city to own this park,” Kern said. “I’ve been asking about this for four years since I’ve been here, why do we own a mobile home park? It’s just not something government should do.”
The city issued $8.7 million in bonds for the park in 1998, and as of March still owed nearly $6.6 million. The bond payments have been made with revenue from the rent, and will be paid off in 2028.
Of the park’s 272 spaces, about 68 percent of those occupied belong to low-income residents. City officials had hoped to set the park up as low-income housing in a sale.
Kern, Felien and Feller said they liked the idea of the homeowners, who rent the space beneath their homes from the city, banding together to buy the park.
“That’s certainly the answer that would make me sleep easier at night,” Felien said.
Sanchez said she doubted residents could raise the capital quickly enough, and worried a new owner would raise rents.
“Who will lend seniors $6.5 million when they’re not loaning builders money?” Sanchez said.
The rent for spaces in the park are kept steady by the city’s rent control ordinance, allowing rates to increase by 75 percent of the consumer price index annually. The City Council in May switched to vacancy decontrol, which allows current mobile home owners to keep rent control but eliminates it when the dwellings change hands. That decision has been stopped by a successful referendum petition circulated by mobile home park residents and other community activists. Vacancy decontrol will go before Oceanside voters in June, and will remain in place for mobile home parks, including Laguna Vista, in the meantime.
With the threat of uncertainty fresh in their minds, many Laguna Vista residents were fearful of changes in ownership.
“We want it to stay like it is,” said Sue Currie, who moved to the park with her husband, Frank, in recent years. “Everything has been just wonderful.
“If it sold ... maybe they’d raise rents way up.”
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