Residents urge Lake County to adopt rent-stabilizing ordinance as Meadow Point owners raise lot rents

Sarah Long, a Meadow Point resident, told the Lake County Board on June 16 that her park’s owner raised lot rent by $350 last December and again by $45 a few months later, and that tenant-owned homes are being made harder to sell by higher resale lot rents. “They raised our rent by $350,” Long said, describing repeated increases in a 12‑month period that have left many retired residents on fixed incomes struggling to pay.

Tom Flanigan, another park resident, and My Lin of Sterling Shores echoed that testimony, calling out a transfer or pass-through practice that allows park owners to increase lot rent when a home changes hands—an incentive, residents said, that can push longtime residents out and make tenant-owned homes difficult to sell. “They raise rent and lower services,” Flanigan said, arguing the result is unsold homes and pricing-out of existing residents.

Hillary Moer, regional manager for the Golden State Manufactured Homeowners League, urged the board not to delay enacting the board’s draft RSO and offered pro bono legal support to complete the ordinance. “Don’t delay enacting your RSO,” Moer said, and recommended the county consult attorney Bruce Stanton, whom she described as experienced in drafting and defending RSOs.

Why it matters: Residents and advocates said the combination of repeated lot-rent increases, pass-through charges and resale restrictions has created an affordability and turnover problem in Lake County’s manufactured-home parks. Supporters argued that finalizing and adopting the county’s RSO would remove incentives for what they described as predatory practices by some park owners and protect fixed‑income residents.

What the board heard and next steps: Public comment closed before the board proceeded with the day’s budget hearings; several speakers explicitly called for the board’s ad hoc committee to finish drafting the RSO and to move to adoption without further long delay. Moer’s offer of pro bono legal review was presented as a potential way to accelerate legal review and reduce county expense.

What’s not decided: The transcript records no formal board vote or schedule to adopt an ordinance during the June 16 session. The board did not announce a date for final action on the RSO during the meeting.