City Council Rewind: Surf and Sand in 2009

The hottest of hot button issues in Capitola right now is the fate of rent control and its subsequent effect on the .

Many of the low-income residents stuck in leases with rent that either skyrocketed Sept. 1 or will do so in a month's time, are at a dead end of decision making, not sure where they will go or where their rent money will come from, especially if rent control is done away with officially at the .

Entrenched so deeply in the modern-day drama of Surf and Sand, as we are, it's easy to forget that this battle is far from the first in which the park's residents have fought to save their homes.  

If we time travel back to 2009, we see a similar landscape, with Surf and Sand folks pleading to the Capitola City Council and Planning Commission to deny park owner Ron Reed a permit to close the park completely. 

"My wife and I bought our home here over 20 years ago," resident Bill Newman told the Planning Commission on Aug. 22, 2009. "With the park owner's approval we put a brand new manufactured home on our space in 1995. As you can see, I'm old, and Anne and I are both disabled. We've invested nearly all of our life savings into our home here at Surf and Sand. We've come here to ask you to protect us against the threat to our only place of residence."

Sounds remarkably analogous to .

Mark Alpert, the attorney representing Reed in 2009, made two contrasting arguments that night.

"What this resistance is all about," Alpert said, "is the wealthy residents who have homes in this park as vacation homes and second homes, who have spent a great deal of money under the mistaken assumption that they have a permanent right to rent control at 20 percent of fair market."

Later, Alpert recalled:

"I visited the park today. Looking at those homes, those tiny, single-wide homes, 50-years-old, 600 square feet, 700 square feet, no one would pay a dime for one of those homes."

So it was unclear, was Surf and Sand Mobile Home Park a dilapidated checkerboard of rotting wood, or was it a rich vacationer's coastal haven?

According to resident Sandra Williams, speaking at the same meeting, 81 percent of the park residents in 2009 were retired senior citizens, either on "fixed income or limited income."

Later in the meeting, Commissioner (now councilmember) Stephanie Harlan said the following:

"The language in our Capitola ordinance is very clear. It says, 'This chapter provides a procedure and standards for reviewing applications for ... closure of mobile home parks ... and protecting residents from tactics such as intimidation and excessive rent increases designed to pressure mobile home owners to relocate. Without this assistance, mobile home owners may lose their investment in their homes, which may be their only asset, and may not be able to relocate to decent, affordable housing.'"

The commission then motioned to reject Reed's closure permit. Later that week, the city council upheld the denial with a 4-0 vote.

Fast forward back to 2011, Surf and Sand residents can only hope that similar reasoning prevails.