Moorpark Freezes Rents at Mobile Home Parks

MOORPARK —  Despite the threat of a lawsuit, Moorpark City Council members Wednesday froze rents at the city’s mobile home parks for the next three months.

The move, taken after residents of the Villa del Arroyo mobile home park complained about steadily rising rents, will give Moorpark officials additional time to study possible changes to an ordinance that already regulates mobile home rent increases.

Council members unanimously approved the moratorium despite the possibility that the park’s owner, who has fought previous efforts to regulate rents, might sue the city. The threat was real enough that council members spent more than an hour in closed session before voting.

Richard P. Elias, director of property management with the company that manages Villa del Arroyo, told council members before their closed session that an imposed moratorium was unnecessary. The park would not have raised rents on current tenants until December anyway, he said.

Management was also willing to hold in abeyance any increases for new tenants moving in during the next 90 days, he said. Under normal circumstances, the rent on a vacated space increases by the cost of inflation.

Despite the council’s vote, Elias said after the meeting that the company would hold off on litigation and work with the city to draft any changes to Moorpark’s rent stabilization ordinance.

“We’re going to give the negotiation process a chance to work,” he said. If the process doesn’t work, he added, the company would consider legal action.

After the vote, Mayor Pat Hunter told Elias and a crowd of about 25 park residents that they should all work on changes in the rent stabilization ordinance.

“The intent is to find some way for all parties, working together, to craft a successor document,” he said.