By Khalida Sarwari
A proposal to replace the Blue Bonnet Mobile Home Park with a townhouse development received the Sunnyvale Planning Commission’s approval despite being the target of a lawsuit that aims to stop it.
The lawsuit, filed by residents of the mobile home park at 617 E. Evelyn Ave., takes aim at a conversion impact report approved by the City Council last year that essentially allows mobile home properties to be transformed to other uses. The report was requested in January 2016 by Dividend Homes along with the Chang family, owners of Blue Bonnet.
Filed shortly after the Sunnyvale City Council voted 5-2 to certify the report last year, the lawsuit alleges among other things that the conversion impact report was insufficient and the process used for its approval conflicts with state law, Sunnyvale City Attorney John Nagel said.
[dfm_iframe src=”https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1nqyuK_be7n77kEADea7wWvNp-0vVPk3-” width=”100%” height=”500px” allowfullscreen=”yes” scrolling=”yes” /]
The city disagrees, he said, adding that “the process in its mobile home park conversion ordinance was correctly followed by the applicant and is consistent with applicable state laws.”
The planning commission voted 4-3 on April 23 to approve a special development permit allowing Dividend Homes to redevelop the 3.26-acre park into 62 three-story townhouses. Vice chairwoman Carol Weiss and commissioners John Howe and Daniel Howard dissented.
Prior to the commission’s vote, Josh Grossman, chairman of Sunnyvale’s housing and human services commission, implored the planning commission to postpone making a decision until the lawsuit is resolved.
“What’s happening when we do this is we’re getting rid of 50 units of low-income housing — that’s the reality of what’s happening — and we’re replacing it with seven units of below market rate housing and all the folks who live there for the most part are being evicted from their homes,” he said. “We’re moving in the wrong direction. We’re getting rid of low-cost housing, that’s exactly what this is.”
Addressing the commission, David Lis, a 38-year resident, bemoaned the loss of a segment of Sunnyvale’s population.
“How about all the lower-income people that live in these mobile home parks, where are they going to go? These are the types of people that work at our Safeways, our burger places, retail shops,” he said.
The owner of the 54-unit park ordered residents to move out by October 2017 and offered to pay those who owned homes there lump sums ranging from $122,000 to $130,000 and renters $19,000 to $24,000 in addition to two years’ rent compensation. Half of Blue Bonnet’s residents either found new homes or made arrangements to live elsewhere, but about eight stayed behind pending the lawsuit’s outcome.
Pin Liang Li, a resident who lives at the end of the long and narrow mobile home park, contends the lawsuit enables them to remain until the suit is resolved.
“Because of the lawsuit, our attorneys asked for an injunction,” he said. “It wasn’t given, but the judge told the developer they cannot move us out before there’s a conclusion on the trial.”
Li says he was offered $73,000 for the one-bedroom unit he bought in July 2015. That’s not nearly enough for a similar dwelling in Sunnyvale, where he prefers to stay to be close to his elderly mother. Moving elsewhere, such as to San Jose or parts of the East Bay as recommended by a relocation specialist hired by the city to work with Blue Bonnet’s residents, is not feasible and will create a hardship, Li said.
“My mom lives right here,” he explained. “Right now she’s 90 years old. I want to be living near her so that whenever she needs I can go over there and help her. And also my job, this is a good location because I need to drive to the airport and do deliveries in Santa Clara.”
Link:
