Richard Hall Co

A two-year dispute between tenants and management of a mobile home park in Dana Point has been settled, and spokesmen for both sides Wednesday credited a city task force for the successful mediation. The deal does not lower a $200 a month rent increase for tenants of the Dana Point Marina Mobile Home Estates, but it does erase a liability of up to $4,000 per tenant in back rent. The creation of a residents' advisory council has also helped ease the tension, according to both sides.

A two-year dispute between tenants and management of a mobile home park in Dana Point has been settled, and spokesmen for both sides Wednesday credited a city task force for the successful mediation. The deal does not lower a $200 a month rent increase for tenants of the Dana Point Marina Mobile Home Estates, but it does erase a liability of up to $4,000 per tenant in back rent. The creation of a residents' advisory council has also helped ease the tension, according to both sides.

Residents of the Treasure Island Mobile Home Park say they plan to picket Saturday afternoon on South Coast Highway in front of the park to protest possible land-rent increases. Sally O'Halloran, a board member of the Treasure Island Residents Owners Assn., said the protest, which will start at 1 p.m., stems from residents' worries about new owners of the park. The park recently was sold to a partnership that includes the Richard Hall Co. of Costa Mesa.

Residents of a mobile-home park in the foothills of Sylmar may soon have an opportunity to become landowners. The city Planning Commission on Thursday approved a change in zoning requested by the owner of the 303-unit Santiago Estates park, built in 1986, that will allow residents to buy the property underneath their manufactured homes.

A strict rent-control ordinance proposed for mobile home parks that would roll back rents to January, 1989, levels and limit annual increases to 50% of the consumer price index has been approved by the Laguna Beach Planning Commission.

In a unique twist for a Laguna Beach election, a political action committee has been formed with the sole purpose of defeating one of the front-runners in the Nov. 3 City Council race. Targeted is Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman, who has been endorsed by Village Laguna, a city employees' group and two homeowners' associations. The PAC was formed by Darren Esslinger, whose family owns Laguna Terrace Park, a mobile home park.

Negotiators in a dispute over the city's largest mobile home park are expressing cautious optimism about settlement after recent talks among landowners, tenants and city officials. For almost two years, a dispute has raged at the 27-acre oceanfront site between the owners, who intend to shut down the 50-year-old park and develop the land, and the tenants, who have long sought to buy the property and keep it as a mobile home park.

Final spending reports for the most expensive City Council campaign in this city's history reveal that two of the three top spenders in the November election won public office. Kathleen Blackburn, who spent $27,729, and Wayne Peterson, who spent $22,318, came in first and second respectively, snagging the two available seats.

The City Council tonight is expected to hear the latest debate on a zoning plan for South Laguna, including a controversial proposal to preserve the Treasure Island Trailer Park. Michael Kenney, president of Treasure Island Resident's Assn., which fears the mobile-home park will be sacrificed to development, said he expects at least 200 residents to attend the meeting in support of making mobile-home zoning permanent. "It's going to be fireworks, that's for sure," he said.

On the heels of the most expensive City Council campaign in the city's history, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause will hold a public meeting Thursday to begin to craft a campaign financing ordinance for Laguna Beach. "I feel this is an ideal time for this activity for our city," resident and league member Jean Raun told the City Council earlier this month. "We ask that the council act now to protect the integrity of the electoral process."