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Condo Request for Industrial Buildings Revives Debate with Mobile Home Park
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Condo Request for Industrial Buildings Revives Debate with Mobile Home Park
Residents Complain about Increased Through Traffic
By Linda Fridy
John McCoy's request to subdivide his new light industrial building on Kennedy Drive in Capitola brought the residents of Cabrillo Mobile Home Estates back to the Planning Commission Jan. 21 to complain about the use of their park by through traffic.
McCoy's request did not alter the physical project, merely the title process to allow the varying office and warehouse spaces to be sold separately.
Yet neighbors hoped the commission could use the request to further negotiations to replace a gate that for decades limited access between their park and the industrially zoned property.
They got a lot of sympathy from commission members, but remain trapped in what appears may be a losing battle over a contested easement between McCoy and their park owners, the Viera family.
Gate Still Debated
Last spring, park residents were surprised by a wall along the property line that turned out to be much closer to some coaches than expected.
While the new buildings and concrete block wall are a lot closer to some of the park's trailers than originally shwon on plans approved by the city, residents do want an entry gate returned that was removed as part of the new construction.
Residents renewed their complaints that removing the gate has resulted in more traffic through their park, and not just from vehicles related to the commercial property.
Resident Gail Levey described large and small trucks roaring through the narrow streets, and drivers who occasionally get confused trying to cut through the park. Another neighbor said she's seen garbage and delivery trucks using the park to go between Rosedale Avenue and Kennedy Drive.
Until McCoy's project went in, a gate between the properties limited access. McCoy removed the gate when he began construction on a second building, near an existing one that has long housed a motorcycle dealer.
McCoy and his project manager, Bob Dwyer, attended the meeting and indicated that they have no opposition to the Vieras installing a new gate. However, McCoy did not attend meetings previously set up by the city to help negotiate an agreement, said Jamie Goldstein, the city's community development director and choice for Capitola's next city manager.
Sympathy but No Jurisdiction
Members of the planning commission expressed sympathy for the residents, but noted that the state oversees mobile home parks. Permission to erect a gate would have to come from the state.
"It boggles my mind that people are able to use a mobile home park as a city street," said commissioner Mike Termini.
If the problem is who should pay for a new gate, commissioner Stephanie Harlan suggested that the city may be able to access money it has to help rehabilitate mobile home parks by making the gate and traffic concerns a security issue.
The commission told residents to bring a petition to the city asking for help covering the cost of a gate.
However, after the meeting Manuel Viera, in a change from earlier statements by his father who had said he would not pay for a gate, said the issue is not the cost but the location. He and resident Pamela Atmore said that McCoy wants the gate located within the park at a location that would leave several park residents on the industrial property side of the gate.
Dwyer confirmed that is the location he and McCoy believe will not impact the easement access.
Dwyer added he has observed those residents often already using the Kennedy Avenue access anyway.
Is There an Easement?
The problem lies with an apparent easement through the park and commercial properties, what McCoy said is a remnant of Rosedale Avenue from the pre-Highway-1 days when the road connected to Soquel Drive. He complained that over the years coaches in the park have encroached on the 20-foot right-of-way, apparently without the city's knowledge.
Manuel Viera countered that McCoy has put a transformer and other structures within the reciprocal easement on his property.
He also said that the property description from his family's 1996 purchase of the mobile home park does not include the easement, which he is having checked with title documents.
He wants to install a gate in roughly the same location as it was previously, although that spot appears to straddle the property line.
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