SAN MARCOS — The San Marcos City Council enacted a 45-day moratorium this week to prevent mobile home park owners from altering age requirements at senior-only parks, protecting senior housing in the city.
City leaders adopted the ordinance on Tuesday night in response to a situation at Lakeview Mobile Estates, one of 12 senior mobile home parks in the city. The park rents to those 55 and older.
In July, park owners distributed a notice to residents with updated rules and regulations, stating that ownership reserves the right to change the park to an all-ages park at any time.
According to the City Attorney’s Office, this raised concerns about the city losing its ability to provide safe and decent housing opportunities to seniors.
In October, the City Attorney’s Office reached out to Lakeview for clarification regarding its intent and planned timeline to change age requirements. Dowdall Law Offices, a law firm representing the park owners, did not clarify and argued that the city has no jurisdiction in this matter and “may not force owners to provide ‘older persons’ housing.'”
“We asked them to clarify, they declined to do so in quite vehement terms, and they did not provide us with the clarification we had requested,” said City Attorney Helen Peake. “If the owner had responded, the need for urgency would have been quite diminished.”
Due to this proposed change to age requirements, the moratorium states that there is “a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety, and welfare arising from the lack of housing options for persons aged 55 and older.”
The City Council unanimously supported the moratorium, which would maintain the status quo while the city considered adopting a senior-only mobile home park zoning ordinance.
Since researching these zoning changes can be time-consuming, the city may renew the moratorium after the initial 45 days expire to buy itself more time.
“This is a precautionary action, so that we make sure that our residents are completely covered and we know exactly what’s going on,” said Mayor Rebecca Jones. “The fact they did not actually answer our question … is a little problematic and concerning to me.”
Under the California Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL), senior parks are defined as those where at least 80% of the residents are 55 and older.
In an October letter to the city, Dowdall Law stated that mobile home park owners have authority over the MRL after the U.S. Supreme Court ended 40 years of precedent set in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. earlier this year.
The court’s June 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo states that courts are no longer required to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of ambiguously written law and restores the right to the court to interpret these laws independently.
The ruling further emphasizes the necessity of clear and explicit delegations of authority from Congress, adding that courts will no longer infer agency powers from ambiguous or vague statutory language.
The Coast News spoke with Terry Dowdall, an attorney at Dowdall Law, to clarify how the shift away from the long-held “Chevron deference” relates to mobile home parks.
For years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has erroneously interpreted the Housing for Older Persons Act to make senior housing compulsory via zoning, according to Dowdall.
Dowdall told The Coast News the Supreme Court’s recent ruling means courts can no longer rely on HUD’s interpretation in legal challenges.
“At present, I await a response to questions about the position of the city relative to recent interpretations by the United States Supreme Court as to administrative overreach by federal agencies. I have every expectation of maintaining a positive and amicable relationship which I have enjoyed for many years,” Dowdall said.
California Mobilehome Residency Law states that federal law does not specifically address the process of changing parks from senior-only to all ages. While it is often the sole decision of park management in the case of rental parks, some local governments do require parks that were developed as “senior parks” to be maintained as such unless approved by the city or county, the MRL states.
John Mosher, representative of the San Marcos Mobilehome Residents Association, thanked the City Council for looking out for its seniors and responding with urgency to the situation at Lakeview.
“Thank you for expediting this and looking at the seriousness of what the residents of Lakeview are facing,” Mosher said. “I want to say thank you from senior citizens that we can get this kind of help to ensure we don’t lose our existing communities and that housing for seniors remains available now and in the future.”
