> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# City acquires trailer park the messy way
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-acquires-trailer-park-the-messy-way/
- Published: 2001-12-20T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T22:32:46.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*‘Covert operatives’ believed to be part of settlement*

*By DAVE DANFORTH Daily Press Staff Writer*

It was no plan, but rather a messy legal battle that brought about the city takeover of the Mountain View Mobile Inn trailer park.

The round of lawsuits that beset the park was sparked by a long-closed city landfill operation next door. Ring Trading, the former owner of the Mountain View parcel, sued the city of Santa Monica in May 1997 for a host of problems, including a methane gas leak, other toxic and noxious chemicals, and dust pollution. Several of the residents there prepared to jump into the suit the next year.

Out of the legal circus emerged a proposal to replace 141 trailer pads, some empty, with 51 free-market condominiums and 90 other “affordable” condominiums to replace the still-occupied mobile homes. The profit from the sale of the 51 extra units would subsidize controlled rents, under a plan advanced by Paul DeSantis, a real estate lawyer and affordable housing advocate.

DeSantis brought in another specialist, Barbara Peters, to propose the “largest affordable housing project” in Santa Monica history.

At the same time, they represented residents in the lawsuit. Their platform for advancing the development plan drew fire, although it included amenities such as a bell tower and a stream.

Phyllis Goff, who has twice served as head of the Mountain View homeowners’ association, worried about the uprooting of residents during construction. The project would have been built in phases, with residents able to stay throughout. But to Goff, the promise of more open space had a hollow ring.

“We would lose our homes and yards, for what?” she sniffed, insisting residents didn’t need the planned 50 percent more open space “just to look at.”

Amidst the proposal was a controversial $2 million “development fee” for legal work, largely done by DeSantis and Peters.

A city lawyer notes that DeSantis’ strong views about his rejected proposal might be explained by that fee. Deputy city attorney Cara Silver termed it simply “a kickback.”

“It was a conflict of interest, an obvious problem,” she said. “Certainly it was something the city council questioned.”

DeSantis said the fees were a small part of a “global settlement proposal” — a legal term for a full settlement of the three-way suit involving Ring Trading, the city, and park residents. The settlement called for the city to simply buy out park owner Ring Trading for $7 million and an end to Ring’s methane suit against it. The city would then eventually sell the park back to the residents through Santa Monica’s affordable housing laws.

The city shot down the DeSantis proposal before buying the park. It worried about the reduction of affordable housing at Mountain View.

Brian Evans, a self-proclaimed roller skate inventor and intellectual property specialist, terms himself the “last man standing.” Evans didn’t agree with his neighbors who dropped their suit against the city. Without a lawyer, Evans pressed his case. He insisted that the city “abate” the environmental problems, and push through the resident buyout of the park, which, by then, many of his neighbors doubted would work. They feared the job of collecting rents from their neighbors, including larger families and economically stressed residents, would be too distasteful.

To complicate matters, Evans decided not to pay his rent for at least the last year, based on the city’s failure to act. The city has now sued to evict him, while a Santa Monica judge has dismissed his suit, leaving him with slim odds resting on an appeal.

If homeowners couldn’t agree with Evans, they also couldn’t agree with each other. One such disagreement forced DeSantis and Peters out of the development business and out of the suit with Ring Trading.

Although the attorneys claimed the residents as their clients, some went to City Hall and negotiated directly with Moncrief at the same time their association was nominally suing the city. The move inflamed the attorneys, who with-drew from the case after some residents openly criticized their “global settlement” and the 51 free-market condos.

The split left Evans to conclude that Ring Trading had found “covert operatives” to “take over” the association and move it towards a city-funded settlement — an assessment with which DeSantis agrees.

“I feel very sorry for the tenants. I feel they’ve been betrayed,” he said. “Defeat was pulled from the jaws of victory. They had an opportunity for a proposal that would have done honor to the city. And now they have a slum.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 20, 2001.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/122001.pdf?ref=smdp.com)