photo credit: Courtesy of PPSC
A screenshot from the Petaluma People
Services Center website, supporting 
protections for senior mobile home park
residents. 

Hundreds of seniors live among five mobile home parks in Petaluma designated 55-plus. Now those mobile home parks will stay that way, after a Petaluma city council vote  this week.

While many people own their mobile homes, the spaces where the homes are located are rented from the park owners. Facing threats of rent hikes and conversions to all-ages...the council voted to create what's called an overlay zone.

That freezes the senior-only designation of those five mobile home parks in Petaluma, so owners can't convert to all-ages.

The council voted unanimously, stating a goal of preserving a diverse range of housing options in Petaluma.

As the ordinance says, another goal is quote "ensuring that senior citizens can age with dignity, respect, and a strong sense of community in the place they have called home for many years," end quote.

One council member, John Shribbs, suggested the city consider raising the minimum age towards that end.

"Because 55-year-olds still can have lots of teenagers in their household...be pretty young families," Shribbs said. "Seniors...now the new 65 is the old 55...maybe having an older crowd...that's now required at 60, rather than 55."

The vote this week means that one of the senior parks in particular, Youngstown, won't be converted to an all-ages park.

Petaluma's city council is on the road to finalizing special rules locking in the status of senior-only mobile home parks. It's a move meant to head off conversions to all-ages status as a way to raise rental prices.

That means 80% of spaces must be occupied by one person 55 or older, and park rules and rental agreements must state the senior-only status.

Sandy Shuteroff is a resident of the senior-only Youngstown mobile home park in Petaluma. That was the site of recent protests against the parks owners. She says a park like Youngstown simply isn't geared for anyone but seniors.

"You know, and those poor kids, where are they gonna go? There's no other kids around that they can play with," Shuteroff said. "Do they have swing sets? Do they have a slide? Do they have a sandbox? Do they have a place where they can ride their bikes? How can we accommodate that if there's nothing here?

Petaluma assistant city attorney Dylan Brady said the senior-only zoning rules are also about acknowledging the reality that mobile homes aren't all that mobile.

"It's hard for those tenants to potentially move to another senior home because of the cost to remove a mobile home," Brady said.

The city's proposed "senior mobile home park district overlay zone" has already been approved by Petaluma's planning commission. It would require senior-only parks be certified by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and stay that way.

Other cities including American Canyon and Santa Clarita have similar senior-only zones. They are allowed thanks to an exemption in the federal Fair Housing Act...which usually seeks to prevent age discrimination.