By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

December 8, 2011 -- The City will not look into exercising its right to eminent domain to prevent the closure of one of two remaining trailer parks in Santa Monica after the council failed to pass a motion Tuesday to explore all options to save the park.

Council member Kevin McKeown reopened the discussion on what the City can do to prevent the closure of Village Trailer Park, home to 52 trailers and their owners – mostly elderly and disabled people.

McKeown's wanted the City to explore the possibility of buying the property or even exercising the City's right to eminent domain, which City Attorney Marsh Moutrie said were pretty much the only way to stop the property from being developed.

Acquisition “is an option of last resort,” McKeown said Tuesday.

“Village Trailer Park is our city's last independent opportunity for affordable ownership,” he continued and it's home to “mostly frail seniors.”

Though McKeown's motion failed, a substitute motion which directed staff to ask the owner, as a part of the Memorandum of Understanding discussions, if he would be interested in selling and at what price -- with no mention of the use of the City's eminent domain powers -- was passed by a vote of 4 to 3.

McKeown, Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis and Council member Pam O'Connor voted against the motion.

Council member Bobby Shriver said that the Council ought to be careful about how they discuss the situation, even though he thought finding out the price of the property was worth looking into.

Shriver pointed out that the owner – Marc Lazzutto – was well within his legal rights to evict the remaining residents and could move forward with the relocation if he felt that the City was going to welch on their deal.

In fact, Shriver said, one of the reasons that there are still residents living at the park five years after Lazzutto originally announced his intention to get out of the trailer park business was the Memorandum of Understanding that the City negotiated to give the residents more time to relocate.

“They could've evicted everyone right then and there,” Shriver said.

Lazzutto has given tenants more than the required 12-month notice necessary when a landowner decides to get out of the rental business.

Lazzutto told the council his was an example of “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Shriver added that the Council's power is very limited in this situation.

Council member Pam O'Connor said that buying the park would be showing preferential treatment.
In the past, the City had declined to buy rental units from private owners to protect renters, why should we start now? she asked

“If we want to go down the path to say we're going to protect all renters, we have to make that a policy,” she said.

But Tuesday's discussion wasn't about policy, it was about information.

“All we're doing is asking staff to come back and leave no stone unturned,” said Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis.

In November, when the Council first raised the question of buying the land, staff estimated the value of the property between $22 million and $30 million, an amount that has been called into question by some members of the community.
McKeown's motion failed with a vote of 2 to 5, with Davis and McKeown casting the two votes in favor.

A substitute motion from Shriver directed staff to “just study the valuations at which the property can be purchased.”

That motion also failed.