Residents reject condo conversion

Counsel for the Rancho de Sonoma Residence Association declared “unacceptable” on Friday the contract to implement the conversion of the mobile home park to condominium ownership. David Grabell, Esq., expressed disappointment that the legal agreement stipulating the conditions, protections and understandings that would accompany the conversion, a plan to which the residents had resigned themselves, contained certain “ambiguities in the language.”
Another reason for the rejection, according to rent control advocate Sam Digiacomo, was that the formal document was presented for signature on Feb. 28, with a signing deadline of Feb. 29, and that just didn’t give people time to study it adequately. Citing a general atmosphere of suspicion and distrust among residents toward park owner Rancho Sonoma Partners, LCC, Digiacomo said there was nothing in the legal document binding should the owner default on any promise, such as providing improvements to the facility. He worried that residents, who are largely on the lower-income end of the scale, would have no recourse in such an event.
Association representative Mike Warner said the legal version bore little resemblance to the draft that had been agreed upon earlier. Under the draft agreement, the present owner would, in exchange for the conversion, renovate the clubhouse, swimming pool and laundry room and bathrooms, would update installations of water, electric, gas and cable utilities, and would protect part-time residents from rent increases.
The Sonoma City Council had helped shepherd the tentative agreement. Warner reports that he intends to address the council on this topic at this week’s council meeting, to be held at 6 p.m. on Wed., March 5, at the city’s newly renovated Community Meeting Room at 176 First Street West.