Trailer park residents granted chance to speak to owner
By CHRISTINE CHANG Special to the Daily Press
MID-CITY To an outsider’s eye, it appeared like any other summer day at Village Trailer Park. Residents strolled about in the warmth, others mused about what to do with the stray cats pervading the grounds. Beneath it all, the tension was building as tenants awaited word about their fate.
On three separate occasions within the last year, the residents of this two-acre trailer park bordered by 26th Street and Bundy Drive have peered into their mailboxes and been greeted with notices of closure. Most of the residents, who are primarily elderly or in need of assistance, want to stay put, noting the limited supply of affordable housing in the city.
On Wednesday, they looked to get some things off their chest as Marc Luzzatto, an attorney and part-owner of Village Trailer Park, paid them a visit at the behest of one of the park’s investors.
“We don’t want people to not have a place to go,” Luzzatto told the residents on hand. “Unfortunately, this place [Village Trailer Park] is an anachronism — it doesn’t work anymore.”
The RV park was designed in the 1950s as a “vacation place,” Luzzatto claimed. According to him, it was not intended for long-term residents. He blamed problems with utilities on the park’s original design flaws.
While J&H Property Management has yet to file the development application necessary to change the current residential mobile home zoning, they did mail stacks of papers in large, official-looking packets to their tenants, offering relocation fees and counseling services in return for their departure.
The most up-to-date notice listed Jan. 31, 2008 as the park’s closure date. For tenants’ troubles, they have been offered relocation fees ranging from $4,400 for a bachelor or single to $8,050 for four or more bedrooms, as mandated by the city of Santa Monica.
As the conversation bounced around Wednesday, it was clear that the residents shared a collective fear about their future.
Having brought an array of presentation boards along with him, Luzzatto — the president and chief operating officer of The Welk Group, a music business that owns labels such as Sugar Hill Records and Vanguard Records — said he was looking for a “win-win” situation. With the low rent and the need for capital improvements, a change needs to be made at Village Trailer Park, he said, and that plans called for apartments and business buildings to render the site a “mixed use” property.
As for the problem posed by displaced Village tenants, Luzzatto said that 52 units, each about 250 square feet (approximately the size of an average trailer), will be set aside for them with voluntary rent control. There are currently 99 residents in 75 active units, 22 vacant spots and 13 empty trailers at the park. Furthermore, Mountain View Trailer Park, also located in Santa Monica, will set aside 20 to 22 plots for Village Trailer Park residents interested in relocating.
Many of the residents present at the meeting were vocally opposed to the plan presented by Luzzatto.
“If you were getting thrown out of your place, you wouldn’t merely call this a ‘frustration’,” one resident exclaimed.
“We don’t want to live in a cramped apartment. We want what we have right now — a yard and some fresh air,”another resident said.
While the proposed plan has not been approved by the city of Santa Monica, Luzzatto emphasized that he attended the meeting in order to establish a dialogue with the residents.
“I want this [process] to be interactive,” he said.
The only certainty that remains is that tenants still face an eviction deadline sometime early next year.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 16, 2007. Read the original PDF.