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Owners cling to mobile park rules
Oakland Tribune, Oct 13, 2006 by Chris De Benedetti, STAFF WRITER
FREMONT -- Besaro Mobile Home Park residents who went to their mailboxes recently found a familiar sight: new rules proposed by the owners.
The amended regulations may be slightly new, but the immediate consequences were similar to those when the controversy first was sparked in May. The residents still are exploring their legal options in a possible showdown with owners, who counter that it is premature to be concerned that the park for 55-year-olds and older will close.
The most recent document presenting rules, which arrived Sept. 30 and would become effective April 1, 2007, is the third version in about four months -- and the second in just five weeks.
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Residents living at the 40-acre, 237-unit park at 4141 Deep Creek Road have viewed the dispute as a sure sign that owners want to close the park.
The senior tenants hired attorney William Constantine, who sent an
Aug. 2 letter threatening to sue park owners if they did not rescind the rule changes within a month.
The owners responded Aug. 28 with a notice to tenants agreeing to rescind the amended list of rules "in its entirety."
But a few days later, the owners served tenants with another set of rules. Residents again objected, in particular, to two amended regulations that would require residents to:
-Advise any prospective mobile home owners that the park may close or be converted to another use.
-Give owners a written statement saying they understand the park may be closed or converted to another use.
The owners responded Sept. 30 by circulating a third version of the regulations. But the two rules in question had not been removed, Constantine said. The Santa Cruz attorney calls those rules a violation of state mobile home residency law because the "owners have no legitimate business interest" in changing those regulations.
"They do the opposite of helping the owners run the park," Constantine said. Owners are "just trying to hold the rule changes over residents'heads."
More than 30 people co-own the park, said Anthony Rodriguez, the Oakland attorney representing the owners. He claims that the most recent version of regulations was made to accommodate recent requests made by Besaro residents, such as tenant use of the social hall for private parties.
Residents such as Rick Wariner, president of the Besaro homeowners association, say they have no choice but to fight back. The park's closure would be an expensive disruption that would eat into the retirement savings of many residents at the Ardenwood neighborhood park. The process of taking apart a large mobile home, moving it and reassembling it could cost as much as $40,000, Wariner said.
Rodriguez calls that argument "rhetoric."
"I don't think the park owners are going to be putting anybody out on the street," Rodriguez said. "Most of these people have incomes and assets -- lots of them have mortgages on mobile homes worth between $150,000 to $200,000. They have income sufficient to pay rent."
Rodriguez says the dispute may be blamed on the city of Fremont, which Besaro park owners have sued over its rent control policy on mobile home parks. The policy is costing his clients about $750,000 per year, Rodriguez claims.
Meanwhile, the frequency of the rule changes is far from becoming old hat for Besaro residents, who intend to continue fighting, Wariner said.
"I've lived here for seven years, and I've never seen so much unity among the tenants," he said.
Staff writer Chris De Benedetti covers Fremont issues. He can be reached at (510) 353-7002 or cdebenedetti@angnewspapers.com.
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