Politics & Government

Capitola City Council Votes to Close Pacific Cove Mobile Home Park—Permanently

Thursday's meeting centered on the ramifications of March flooding on the mobile home park.

The hot topic of Thursday’s City Council meeting was the Pacific Cove Mobile Home Park, which the council voted to close rather than spend $2 million to repair. In case you missed the heated debate, here’s a breakdown as well as other highlights.

• More than 50 locals trickled into Thursday’s meeting, with about 15 taking the podium to voice their opinions on whether to shut down the 60-year-old Pacific Cove Mobile Home Park. Some said they felt that was not an isolated incident, and that, especially in the face of global warming, even harsher storms would strike. Yet most of the people who commented were longtime residents of the park, opposed to relocating. One voiced that, “Pacific Cove will never be up to code. Please don’t shut us down,” eliciting clapping and cheers from audience members.

• After the council unanimously voted to close the park, they agreed their  next step would be to produce a relocation impact report to decide how much each family will receive for relocation expenses. There are 26 full-time residents of the park.

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• The council denied insurance claims totaling $140,000 from a handful of residents, only some related to the flood, and passed the claims along to the city's liability insurance carrier. Since the item was on the city’s consent calendar, there was no scheduled separate review. While the public had the opportunity to comment beforehand, no one touched on the issue.

• The council also decided to increase fines for anyone who removes a tree, even if it's in their own yard, without first acquiring a $125 permit. The fees will be upwards of $2,500 a tree, and second-time offenders will see their fines double. Mayor Dennis Norton was an advocate, after recently learning about two redwoods that “were older than the city itself” being cut down. But others, like Councilman Kirby Nicol, said the plan was unclear and needed to be reworked. The council agreed to begin issuing the fines and to review the plan next year.

Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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