Many of you are familiar with the battle over rent control that took place in the City of Capitola. The fight ended with the City amending and ultimately abandoning its rent control ordinance last year.
It all started back in 2007, when the Landowners held a meeting with the tenants to discuss a possible subdivision. Within a few days, the City Council had adopted an “urgency ordinance” designed to regulate mobilehome park conversions, but whose real intent was to block any subdivision. The Landowners elected to pursue a closure instead, until theSequoia decision in Fall 2009 was announced. Of course, rent control was still in place and the tenants fought conversion. The resident survey reflected overwhelming opposition to the subdivision conversion. The City ultimately denied both the conversion application and an application to approve park closure-refusing even to state what would be the appropriate relocation benefits for a closure to be approved. It was the City’s intransigence, spurred by the desire to cater to the tenants, which led to the ultimate repeal of rent control, as the City’s actions became impossible to defend in court.
With rent control gone, the Landowners elected to again pursue subdivision. Without rent control in place, the conversion was supported by a large majority of residents. The application sailed quickly through the City and the Vesting Tentative Tract Map was approved by the City Council on August 8, 2013. Good result for the Landlords. Great result for the City.
If you have any questions about subdivision or closures, or rent control, please reach out to Mark Alpert or Bill Dahlin at malpert@hkclaw.com or bdahlin@hkclaw.com, respectively. Alternatively, you can reach either attorney at (714) 432-8700.
