By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

July 7, 2010 --The head of a group of investors that owns one of the two remaining trailer parks in Santa Monica told the City Council on Thursday that the Village Trailer Park, home to more than 70 residences at the corner of Stanford Street and Stewart Avenue, must close. He said it is only a matter of when that will happen.

The comments from Marc Luzzatto, president of Village Trailer Park LLC, came during an emotional Land Use & Circulation Element (LUCE) hearing. Several residents pleaded with council members to remove the trailer park from the Mixed Use Creative District as a method to prevent it from closing and becoming part of a proposed mixed-use development. The council majority rejected this option, citing legal advice they had received that doing so could cause the residents to be quickly evicted.

The owner has proposed a 353,000-square-foot mixed-use development on the property. Village Trailer Park LLC is in negotiation with City officials on a development agreement. Luzzatto said he will make sure there is a “viable relocation option” for each resident, including placing some in low-income units at the new development. But he said keeping the trailer park open is not possible.

“The trailer park is not economically or physically viable,” Luzzatto told the council. “There are significant infrastructure and operational issues that can only be addressed with major capital improvements and investments that cannot be justified in a money-losing property.”

Four years ago, Village Trailer Park residents received one-year warnings that they would be evicted to make room for the proposed mixed-use project. This created a large stir, and the ownership has been in discussion with City officials since this time. The residents have been allowed to remain at their properties.

“We’ve already fed the property for four years to keep it open,” Luzzatto said. “So the reality is the park will have to close. It’s only a matter of when.”

Council member Kevin McKeown renewed a motion he made at the previous LUCE hearing calling for all residentially zoned areas to be removed from the Mixed Use Creative District. This would only affect the trailer park. While the motion was a stalemate the previous time with three votes in favor, three against and an abstention, this time it was defeated. Four council members voted against it, including Council member Terry O’Day, who had previously favored the measure.

Those who opposed the measure said they were looking in the best interest of the residents. They would not get into specifics due to the State law prohibiting public discussion of what goes on during the closed-session of council meetings, but they said they received legal advice that changing the district designation (not the actual zoning, that is not part of the LUCE process), would lead to quick evictions and limited relocation assistance.

“The decision has to do with what level of risk each one us we are willing to put the trailer park residents in,” Mayor Pro Tem Pam O’Connor said. “While the language [of McKeown’s measure] is a feel-good language, I believe it would put them frankly at greater risk of losing their housing sooner.”

McKeown asked Luzzatto if he would evict the tenants if the council were to approve his measure. Luzzatto did not directly answer the question.

“I can’t tell you that I’m going to continue to feed a property if I have no real legal assurance that there is a path toward, not profitability, but stopping the bleeding,” Luzzatto said.

Council member Gleam Davis, who supported McKeown’s motion along with Council member Robert Holbrook, said she believed Luzzatto had been acting in good faith on discussions with City officials and the residents.

“That argues against the idea that somehow if we express our desire to keep residential in existing residential neighborhoods that he’ll take some precipitous action,” Davis said.

McKeown added, “The residents of Village Trailer Park are not fools. They have lived with the situation for a long time. I trust they have educated themselves about what they face.”

He noted that a petition signed by 51 residents in favor of McKeown’s measure included language that they understand the risks of the request.

The vote on the trailer park was one of many preliminary votes taken regarding the LUCE. The final LUCE hearing was expected to take place Tuesday night.