The Encinitas City Council on Wednesday will consider two options for freezing mobile home park rental rates, one temporary and one permanent.<\/p>\n
Both are listed as \u201cmoratoriums\u201d in city documents, but that doesn\u2019t mean that rents will be frozen at their current levels, a city staff report stresses multiple times.<\/p>\n
Instead, both would allow park owners to raise rents by 4% or by 75% of the area\u2019s annual Consumer Price Index figure, depending on which is lower. The current annual CPI rate is 4.7% for the San Diego region, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.<\/p>\n
If park owners believe that this increase would not give them \u201ca fair return,\u201d then they can petition the city for a higher rent increase, the staff report states, adding, \u201cThe City Clerk would then schedule the matter for a public hearing before the City Council to make a determination if a greater return is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s meeting starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave.<\/p>\n
While the proposed ordinances do allow rent increases, they\u2019re at a far lower level than the double-digit figure of 20% that was recently proposed by Riviera Mobile Home Park. That proposed rate hike, which was later rescinded, led Riviera residents to lobby city leaders to support rent control weeks ago.<\/p>\n
During an Oct. 14 meeting, council members heard from park residents and owners. People who live in mobile homes told the council that they felt like hostages. They own their structures, but must rent the land that their buildings sit on. The corporations that own the mobile home park land can charge whatever rental rate they like, and the residents are stuck paying it, they said.<\/p>\n
Encinitas has 11 mobile home parks containing about 729 spaces, the staff report states. Several park owners told the council at the Oct. 14 meeting that they thought a rent control ordinance was an extreme action, arguing that only one Encinitas mobile home park currently was proposing a big rent increase. A representative for that park told the council that its owners dropped their plan hours before the meeting and now were only seeking a 4% increase.<\/p>\n
Council members said they would consider the park residents\u2019 ordinance request, and thus the two proposed options now are up for debate Wednesday. The first one is an \u201curgency\u201d measure that calls for a moratorium lasting until July 30, 2027, or sooner if a permanent ordinance is enacted before then. It\u2019s known as an urgency ordinance because it would go into effect immediately and the council has to make certain emergency findings to establish it. A super majority, or four-fifths of the council, needs to vote in favor for it to go into effect.<\/p>\n
The second proposed ordinance is a non-urgency one that contains \u201cthe same substantive provisions,\u201d the city staff report states. It would need to go through the city\u2019s regular legislative process, which involves council votes at two different meetings and then a 30-day waiting period before it could go into effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccordingly, the urgency ordinance would provide immediate protection while the non-urgency ordinance proceeds through the ordinary adoption process,\u201d the staff report states.<\/p>\n