Planned demolition of trailer park stirs residents' fears

June Manning has multiple forms of arthritis, and at 84, just mopping the floor is a challenge.

So she said the idea of moving out of her spacious, well-kept trailer home is giving her nightmares.

After a six-year battle with a local developer, Manning and her neighbors at Santa Monica's Village Trailer Park must prepare for eviction.

"I'm so stressed out," she said softly. "I'm scared, because I have no place to go."

Manning is one of several park residents who are elderly, have health problems or both. They could be uprooted as early as next summer if everything goes according to the developer's plan.

The Santa Monica City Council gave its green light to the evictions earlier this month, voting 4 to 2 to approve an agreement that will allow the owner of the property to demolish the trailer park and build a ritzy complex of apartments and storefronts in its place.

Park residents say their assets are being torn away, their friendships destroyed and their peace of mind shaken. Some question the legality of the process. Others say they are more worried about the precedent the decision sets for other low-income residents of the beach city.

Supporters of the project counter that Marc Luzzatto, principal of Village Trailer Park LLC, has already done more than the law requires to ease the tenants' transition.

Not only has Luzzatto's company given residents several years' warning of its plans, it responded to concerns raised at a public hearing in July by reducing the size of the planned development by 8% and pledging to retain 10 mobile-home spaces on the site.

The spaces are expected to house some of the 36 residents remaining in the park about half the number who owned trailers in 2006 when the developer took over. Some tenants have died and others have moved. Many worked out agreements before relocating.

Read the rest here:
Planned demolition of trailer park stirs residents' fears