Council extends conversion moratorium

At the Wednesday meeting of the Sonoma City Council, when City Planner, David Goodison introduced Item 5C, the adoption of a moratorium on the conversion of mobile home parks to resident ownership, the response was notably relaxed, compared to earlier meetings when this issue was on the agenda.
Councilmember August Sebastiani set the tone at the start, dedicating the meeting to the memory of Harry Drittenbas, former vice president of the Rancho de Sonoma Homeowners Association, who had recently passed away.
The issue in question, as Goodison explained, is that the state law allows a jurisdiction to suspend certain applications in order “to allow time for the study and development of updated regulations of projects of the kind the council wishes to study, such as updated regulations concerning condo conversion of mobile home parks.” He said an interim ordinance can be extended twice, and for a maximum of two years. The city’s current ordinance has been extended once, and, unless extended again, would have expired on June 5.
City Attorney Tom Curry said he’d planned to get a revised draft to the council by the May 20 meeting, but when he received a letter from Rancho de Sonoma owner, Preston Cooke’s attorney, which questioned some of the provisions in the city’s current ordinance, he wanted to revise the ordinance, giving consideration to those points which he thought “well taken.” To do that, the draft had to go another round of review and comment from tenants, coach owners and park owners. “So we needed to request an extension of the moratorium,” Curry said, “so as not to create a gap between the moratorium and the effective new date of an ordinance the council might consider.”
That draft will be ready at the next council meeting, he said. “There would be a second reading at the first meeting in July. 30 days after that July 2 date, that ordinance would be effective. That’s our current schedule, and I’m not aware of anything that would further delay that. The ordinance has been drafted. It’s in a form we find acceptable to bring to you.”
In the absence of Council member Steve Barbose, who is on vacation, Curry said they’d decided to bring the extension for a vote at this council meeting, and the draft ordinance itself when Barbose returns. The public urged the council for the extension.
Former president of the association, Diane Shepherd who, a neighbor said, had left her sick-bed to come to the meeting, thanked Sebastiani for the reference to Harry Drittenbass. “He was a valued friend and staunch advocate against the condoizing of Rancho de Sonoma, and he will be greatly missed.” She also noted that Prop 99 was passed with two thirds majority and Prop 98, was “soundly defeated.” She urged the council to extend the moratorium “as long as deemed necessary.”
Others voiced joined her plea, recommending varying lengths for the extension. Tom Martin, treasurer and representative of the executive board of he Sonoma Valley Democratic Club urged the council to extend the moratorium until a later date, not only for the Rancho de Sonoma, but other communities as well.”
Laurie Gallian said, “It’s time to do due diligence, but it’s also time to resolve the situation because a lot of individual lives are in the balance.”
Park owner, Preston Cooke requested that the council not have a year of negotiations, but just “cut that time back. I would hope you would look at two months,” he said, “I think that is adequate time. If in two months, we’re not ready, I’d be willing to extend it again, but I would request a shortening of that time.”
Sam DiGiacomo summed up the park residents’ plea with uncharacteristic brevity. “This morning, we woke up to a better California,” he said, “as voters approved Prop 99. Tonight, we hope to go to sleep in a better Sonoma. We ask for unanimous vote to extend our condo conversion moratorium. We must continue to protect our citizens and our affordable housing stock.”
When it came to the vote, Mayor Pro Tem Ken Brown said, “It is the goal of the council to get this done. But the residents need to be aware it isn’t necessarily going to last a year.”
Mayor Joanne Sanders said the council is “very motivated to get this resolved and get this in place while the council is seated here.” She said further, “There have been some comments thanking the council for their support of rent control. I want to go on record that I have been steadfast in my support for the precious affordable housing stock we have at our three parks, and I will continue to be supportive of protecting that, and protecting all of you.”
The council voted unanimously, with councilmember Barbose absent, to extend the moratorium for another year.