Santa Monica’s high-value property may not reflect a once-modest city. But one of the two trailer parks that fall under the city’s rent-control policies may be among the last vestiges to succumb to modernization.
The City Council voted 4-2 to adopt a new policy that would replace the Santa Monica Village Trailer Park with a new, high-end condo and apartment complex. But to do so would requiring razing the park and evicting 47 tenants from their SUV-sized motor homes. That has the whole plan facing possible legal action.
The developer of the new multi-purpose development has offered concessions to those who would be displaced. Offers have included new mobile homes, honoring current rent prices for new apartments for up to 5 years, and $20,000 in cash. But residents are not willing to sell what they describe as their Fourth Amendment rights.
Others simply don’t trust the developer to follow through.
Read the full story at the Mercury News.