A goal to preserve affordable housing for more than 1,000 senior residents—specifically tenants of five mobile home parks in Santa Maria—prompted the city to recently refresh its zoning standards.
Ahead of the new rules tailored to limit these parks’ eligibility to convert from 55-and-older to welcoming all ages, none of the five parks’ owners expressed interest in converting, Santa Maria Community Development Director Chenin Dow told the City Council at its Aug. 4 meeting.
“It’s seeking to kind of get ahead of the game before there was a desire to convert here,” Dow said about Santa Maria’s senior mobile home park overlay, which the council adopted unanimously.
Once this ordinance goes into effect in early September, if an owner of any of the five designated parks—Casa Del Rio, Casa Grande, La Maria, Rancho Buena Vista, and Trailerancho—wished to offer more than 20 percent of their units to residents of all ages, they would need to request a formal zoning amendment.
That application would then be up for public review, first through the Santa Maria Planning Commission before reaching the City Council.
According to City Attorney Thomas Watson, the preemptive nature of this policy is something that comparable measures in neighboring districts, such as Santa Barbara County, don’t share.
“The bit of litigation that has happened … is because an owner came in and tried to change it [to all ages], and then the governing body tried to put guardrails in place,” Watson said. “That’s why we’re trying to do it proactively, so that any park owner who buys one understands what they’re buying.”
Watson was referring to the county’s senior mobile home park zone overlay, which the Board of Supervisors adopted after Del Cielo Mobile Estates in Orcutt came under new ownership in 2024 and management notified senior tenants of its intent to convert the property to an all-ages park.
Park owners sued the county in November 2024, with a court trial start date set for Sept. 14.
‘Today, park owners retain the flexibility to open their communities to all ages if market conditions or residents needs change. This ordinance strips that flexibility away.’
—Jarryd Gonzales, Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association
The Del Cielo dispute prompted some senior residents of Santa Maria, such as Gary Hall, to begin speaking up at public meetings, to encourage the City Council to go the route it ultimately did.
“For two years, we have advocated at City Council meetings for protection against the inappropriate conversion of senior mobile home parks, as occurred at the Del Cielo senior mobile home park in Orcutt,” Hall told the Sun via email.
Hall is an active member of the North Santa Barbara County Manufactured Homeowners Team.
“Following the swift action taken by Santa Barbara County, … it seemed there was a good model for Santa Maria to follow,” Hall said. “I was cautiously optimistic that the ordinance would be approved, [and] very grateful for the City Council’s unanimous support.”
Hall was among several public speakers at the Aug. 4 hearing who identified themselves as senior residents of the new Santa Maria overlay’s five impacted mobile home parks.
Of all the speakers for that item, only one discouraged the council from adopting the ordinance: Lisa L. Toke, an attorney who represents three of the impacted parks—Casa Del Rio, Casa Grande, and Rancho Buena Vista.
At the meeting, Toke said she believes the ordinance violates private property rights and makes the city susceptible to an inverse condemnation lawsuit, a course of action her clients hope won’t be necessary to pursue.
In an email interview with the Sun, Toke said that her three clients opposed the adoption of an overlay “because they believe it will further limit the affordable housing available in Santa Maria.”
When asked whether her clients believe the overlay will impact their parks as they currently operate, Toke sent the Sun a letter making “our clients’ position clear.”
The letter accuses the ordinance of discriminating “against non-seniors who live in or wish to live in mobile home parks” and exacerbating affordable housing shortages “in Santa Maria in particular and in California in general.”
However, Toke clarified over email that her clients “intend to continue doing business as senior mobile home parks.”
City Attorney Watson addressed Toke’s public comment remarks at the Aug. 4 hearing.
“As she’s already acknowledged, her clients would have no damages because they are not in a position that they’re trying to change their parks,” Watson said. “With respect to the legal consequences, [the ordinance] is consistent with federal law. … This juncture has the legal green light from my office to move forward.”
Along with Toke’s clients, opponents of the overlay included the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, and its Santa Maria-based members, according to spokesperson Jarryd Gonzales.
“As a matter of longstanding policy, [the association] doesn’t disclose the membership status of individual parks or owners,” Gonzales told the Sun via email. “What I can tell you is that [the association’s] opposition to this ordinance reflects concerns shared by manufactured housing community owners and operators across Santa Maria and throughout California.”
Now that the ordinance has passed, Gonzales said that Santa Maria-based members of the association are “evaluating all available options” in terms of challenging the overlay’s legality.
“Today, park owners retain the flexibility to open their communities to all ages if market conditions or resident needs change,” Gonzales said. “This ordinance strips that flexibility away, … from private property owners.”
Santa Maria 1st District City Councilmember Ricardo Batalla told the Sun that he was eager to motion for the overlay’s adoption—which passed 5-0—partly because he has “a big heart when it comes to elderly people.”
“When people try to take advantage of elderly people, it really grinds my gears,” said Batalla, whose district constituents include Casa Grande tenants. “I’m just doing my due diligence as a City Council member.”
“My mother was a caregiver,” Batalla said. “I remember growing up, we would go to Casa Grande because she would take care of an elderly woman there. She would cook for her and bathe her.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in August 13 – August 20, 2026.
I would like to know whether the residents of these mobile homes are members of the GSMOL. If they are, why didn’t they have the Attorney represent them?