The owners of an Orcutt senior mobile home park sued Santa Barbara County after the Board of Supervisors passed a temporary moratorium to prevent conversions from senior parks to all ages during its Nov. 5 meeting.
“We believe this ordinance is unjust and attempts to force us to violate federal law,” Nick Ubaldi told the Sun in an email. “The recent conversion moratorium in Santa Barbara County does not affect Del Cielo, as we have already designated the park as all-ages in accordance with state law. Any change to a senior-only designation would be our decision alone.”
Ubaldi is the regional property manager for Harmony Communities, the Stockton-based property management company that took over managing Del Cielo Mobile Estates—a 55-and-older park in Orcutt—after new owners purchased the park in April. In May, Harmony Communities notified residents of the owners’ intention to convert the park into all-ages, which led senior park residents to request protection from the county. Oftentimes, park conversions can cause extreme rent spikes that detrimentally impact seniors on fixed incomes.
The county acted as quickly as possible to create a temporary ordinance that would prohibit any mobile home park zoning changes from senior parks to all ages—and/or protect all mobile home parks from redevelopment—while it moves forward with an overlay to permanently protect senior parks.
During public comment at the Nov. 5 meeting, Ubaldi told supervisors on behalf of Del Cielo that the senior overlay causes barriers that prevent families and diverse individuals from having equal access to housing. He and Paul Beard II, an attorney representing the park’s owners, urged the supervisors to deny the ordinance or face litigation.
“If it enacts the moratorium, the board will be turning its back on, thumbing its nose at a large swath of its constituents,” said Beard II, who works for the Pierson Ferdinand Law Firm. “We’ve had this litigation before against other cities up north, and we have been successful in overcoming demurrers—motions to dismiss those very same claims and so we feel very confident that any legal challenge to this moratorium or any future senior overlay ordinance would be successful.”
Ubaldi said that Del Cielo has not complied with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requirements for a Housing for Older Persons Act exemption, where owners must verify the age of its residents
“If you impose a senior overlay now, it would force Del Cielo to violate the federal Fair Housing Act prohibition against discrimination based on familial status,” Ubaldi said.
According to the complaint, filed on Nov. 8, Del Cielo’s owners claim that the park has operated “de facto as an ‘older persons’ park,’”—meaning that the park had acted as a senior park without any formal legal recognition—and the park’s leases and rules do not guarantee that the park would remain a senior park in perpetuity.
“Therefore, when it acquired the park, Del Cielo had no expectation that it would be required, by the county or anyone else, to perpetually discriminate against non-senior families,” according to the complaint.
Similarly to Santa Barbara County, the Cotati City Council passed a senior overlay in December 2023 after Country Side Mobile Estates (a senior mobile home park) came under new ownership that also employed Harmony Communities as its property manager.
The park owners filed a similar lawsuit against Cotati in February—making the same claims that Country Side operated as a “de facto” seniors-only park and didn’t comply with HUD’s age verification requirements nor did the park’s leases guarantee that the park would remain seniors-only in perpetuity.
Cotati City Manager Damien O’Bid couldn’t provide comment at this time as the lawsuit is ongoing.
Despite the legal threats, Santa Barbara County supervisors didn’t waver in their unanimous vote to approve the moratorium.
“I felt that if you’re going to come to the Board of Supervisors and threaten—basically threatened us, called us racists—I can only imagine what you’re going to be doing when you’re dealing with people on fixed incomes that are elderly, that might not have all of the resources that we do,” 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said during the meeting. “I appreciate understanding where they are coming from.”
This article appears in Nov 14-24, 2024.