Couple told to remove mobile home

The Costa Mesa City Council has decided a couple can’t keep an aging mobile home on their Elden Avenue property.

On Tuesday, the council voted, 4-1, to deny a request by Jim and Susan Bollinger for a second public hearing on the issue, with Councilwoman Katrina Foley casting the dissenting vote.

On Aug. 1, the council reversed a June 26 planning commission decision to allow the couple to legalize the installation of the mobile home at 2333 Elden Ave. The council has given the owners 120 days to move the structure from the Bollingers’ Eastside property, which had been given to the couple by Susan Bollinger’s mother.

The couple moved the 36-year-old mobile home from El Morro Village in March. It was one of 295 homes that had to be moved due to state plans to turn El Morro Village into a public campground.

Jim Bollinger said he and his wife are disappointed with the council’s decision.

“We’re not sure right now what we’re going to do. We’re at a loss,” Bollinger said Thursday. “It’s pretty disappointing when you’re denied the use of your own property.”

Right now, the couple is deciding whether they will seek legal help.

City planning staffers say the home could be a safety hazard, and a group of neighbors are concerned that the appearance of the home will lower their property values.

Bollinger told the council he was willing to do as much as he could to make sure the exterior of the structure looked like a home.

Foley she did not care that the structure started as a mobile home as long it was renovated and modernized to look like a home.

“My concern is that we’re telling people what to use to build their home,” Foley said Tuesday.

Douglas Hiramoto was one of two residents who spoke against the mobile home at the meeting.

“A mobile home belongs in a mobile-home park,” Hiramoto said. It doesn’t matter that the couple want to make the structure look like a home.

“Let’s call a spade a spade,” Hiramoto said.

Donald Lamm, the deputy city manager and development services director, said at the council meeting that the couple have to wait six months if they want to submit the same design plan to alter the mobile home.