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WEEKEND EDITION, JUNE 16-17, 2007
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Trailer park ownership visits tenants FROM PARK PAGE 12 to be made at Village Trailer Park, he said, and that plans called for apartments and business buildings to render the site a “mixed use” property. As for the problem posed by displaced Village tenants, Luzzatto said that 52 units, each about 250 square feet (approximately the size of an average trailer), will be set aside for them with voluntary rent control. There are currently 99 residents in 75 active units, 22 vacant spots and 13 empty trailers at the park. Furthermore, Mountain View Trailer Park, also located in Santa Monica, will set aside 20 to 22 plots for Village Trailer Park residents interested in relocating. Many of the residents present at the meeting were vocally opposed to the plan presented by Luzzatto. “If you were getting thrown out of your place, you wouldn’t merely call this a ‘frustration’,” one resident exclaimed. “We don’t want to live in a cramped apartment. We want what we have right now — a yard and some fresh air,” another resident said. While the proposed plan has not been approved by the city of Santa Monica, Luzzatto emphasized that he attended the meeting in order to establish a dialogue with the residents. “I want this [process] to be interactive,” he said. The only certainty that remains is that tenants still face an eviction deadline sometime early next year.
Christine Chang news@smdp.com
JUST HOLDING ON: Village Trailer Park residents clutch the park closure notices they have been receiving for the past year during a meeting with news@smdp.com
ownership this week. The latest notice informs the park’s tenants that they will need to vacate the property by Jan. 31, 2008.